Here Comes The Sun
by border-skitz
Summary: So I changed the name, cause I liked this title better! Just something I wished had happened, because there wasn't nearly enough Edward/Audrey moments in there for my liking. Please read and review, it's my first fic! Chapter 14 up!
1. Chapter 1

Alright my first fic, just having some fun, and I have had this one floating half in my brain and half on my hard drive for a while, not really sure what to do with it, when my friend told me to come here. So...here I am, I had wished there was more moments between Audrey and Edward in the movie, but I suppose I will have to just read about it instead. Anyway hope you all enjoy.

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Audrey lugged the basket up the stairs and dumped some of the clothing out unto the table. Smoothing the wrinkles out a a young boys t-shirt, she wondered how doing the laundry every night had become sort of her unofficial, and unspoken job to do every morning, and every night. Not that she minded doing laundry, it wasn't a chore to her, and she knew it to be for so many others. But how had she gotten stuck with it when so many others were here doing little else then surviving all day.

Movement behind her, jarred her precious thoughts and she turned to find a figure obscured by shadows. She could only make out a pair of honey eyes, that appeared to be glowing, and for one seemingly endless moment of horror her muscles went ridged, because she knew she didn't have her crossbow on her, and she contemplated just how bad the bite would hurt, before realization set in, and she let out a shaky breath she had only been mildly aware she was holding.

"Ed?" She sighed, with a tone that made it half a question, because she still didn't really know.

But he skirted around the soft patches of sunlight, and smiled at her, his dark hair no longer slicked back against his skull, but more hanging in his eyes, and sticking up from a night of rolling around in a cot that made your muscles feel pinched, and tight. She watched as he came to stand across the table from her, still with his slow and easy smile across his face, and still standing in the shadowed parts of the room. He looked younger without his hair oil slicked back, it gave light to his eyes.

"Can't sleep either?" She asked, hoping that he would stop watching her, because she could feel her face getting warm, and it wasn't something she was used to.

For a moment he looked very confused, like she had just asked him if his second nose was itching, but then his expression softened and he nodded his understanding, "I don't sleep." He said, almost simply, but with an underlying tone of disappointment and sadness.

"At all?" She asked, never had this thought occurred to her, she had always thought that as inhumain as they might be, they would have to sleep at some point.

"Not in the last ten years or so." He said again, his tone laced with a sadness she couldn't understand.

"Well then you can help me with these." She said, taking a laundry basket, and pushing it into the shadows where he stood, and he smiled, and then flashed eyes to her neck, and she covered it and stood straight again, "Are you thirsty again?"

His eyes cut to her neck, his expression was blank, and she thought for sure that he was, but for some reason couldn't bring herself to be afraid of him, he was too human, too good, too-Ed to ever get thirsty enough to hurt her. Audrey wasn't sure how she knew this, from only having met him three times, and twice never really talking to him.

"What does it feel like?" He asked quietly and for a moment she only stood watching him.

"What?" She asked cautiously, and her eyes shot to her crossbow still sitting completely harmless across the room, she would have to walk right by him to get to it, and he would be much faster then her, she knew it.

"The sun." He said, almost ashamedly, like he was admitting to forgetting an anniversary, or a birthday.

Looking down at her arms, she raised her hand to where her neck had been, sunlight filtered through from somewhere above, and she stared at her hand blankly, and then back at him for a moment, "Don't you remember?" She asked cautiously, still twirling her fingers through the sunlight absentmindedly.

He looked sheepish, and ashamed, "No. I haven't so much as looked at the sun in over ten years, I sort of have a minor reaction to it or something." He said with a shrug, and a hint of humor.

Audrey smiled grimly, and resisted the urge to smack her own forehead, of course he wouldn't remember, it was like having memories from your childhood, fuzzy ones you can never remember if they are your own, or just something someone told you about.

"Um," She paused watching her hand, and trying to think what could describe this feeling, it didn't really feel like anything anymore, "It feel...warm." She told him lamely.

He squinted at her, and nodded once, "Warm?" He asked clarifying, "Yes warm, a revelation I dare say. It is so interesting that you would use the word warm, I imagine some lesser being would have used the term hot, but no not you, warm it is then." He said sarcastically, as he rounded the table to stand behind her, and now Audrey laughed, wondering if it had woken someone the way it echoed lightly through the building.

"I'm sorry, but it doesn't feel like anything to me, it's too normal, like trying to explain to a dying person what breathing feels like, it's too natural a thing to try and look at objectively." She said, abandoning the laundry, and the sun to turn and face him, finding him rather close as he ducked around more streaming sunlight.

He considered her for a moment, and then nodded mutely, looking away almost longingly at the sunlight, "Thanks anyway. Warm, I shall keep that in mind." There was no sarcasm now, and he looked pitiful slumping back, and staring at the ceiling.

Taking a deep breath and closing her eyes, she spoke.

"It's like getting a hug."

His eyes flicked back to her, and stared for a moment, "I'm sorry?"

"The sun," She said gesturing at the ray that was shining in and then upward, "It's like being freezing cold, and then jumping into a really hot bath, or coming in from the snow and drinking hot chocolate and it warms you chest from the inside out. Or like being cold, and hugging someone who is really warm, and it gives you goosebumps all over-" She trailed off, Edward was watching her carefully. Like he was drinking in her words, and for a moment, neither said anything, neither moved.

His hand touched hers, and Audrey resisted the urge to gasp, he hand was icy cold, she was mildly surprised he wasn't covered in frost. His fingers grazed the back of her hand, and he closed his eyes, taking a shuddering breath. Audrey twitched her fingers, and Edward's eyes snapped open, finding hers instantly, she turned her hand over, his fingers meeting her palm.

Eyes locked, he smoothed his hand down hers, so their palms aligned, and curled his fingers around hers, watching carefully for her reaction. Audrey stepped closer, and his gaze flicked over his shoulder, he couldn't step back, or risk stepping into direct sunlight, so he stood warily, thinking he hadn't been this close to a woman in sometime, nearing eight or nine years he would venture to guess.

He opened his mouth to try and tell her this, to try and tell her that this wasn't right, and that he couldn't do this, and risk something happening, but in that moment her other hand slid over his, entangling itself to him, and all he could manage to do was stifle a groan. She was so deliciously warm, she was too warm, and he needed to stop, he needed to find a way to go somewhere, do something, something else. Saying something to get her to stop looking at him like that.

But he couldn't, he wouldn't, he didn't want too, not really. She stepped closed, brushing their chests against one another, and he exhaled and holding his breath because in truth he didn't need to breathe, he made his chest as small as possible, in hopes she would understand. Her hands left his, and he was sure their moment would end, but they were back at his forearms and creeping their way higher.

Licking his dry lips he tongue brushed his fangs, and now he remembered one very big reason why this was not okay, why this couldn't happen, he could kill her. Opening his mouth once more to tell her this, her hands came to rest on his chest, scraping lightly, and playing with the buttons of his shirt, there was no escaping this, and no stiffling a groan that tore from his mouth, no amount of clothes could keep the warmth she emitted from seeping into him. She was leaving a trail of warmth up his body, the was quickly receding, already his hands were starting to cool again, and greedily, he moved them to her waist without thought. Because he wanted that warmth again.

Her eyes flicked to his, as he groaned low in his throat, trying to stop it by keeping his mouth closed, but it wasn't working. She watched him as he opened his eyes, and her arms slid around his shoulders, and she pulled him into an embrace. She was hugging him tightly, and Edward told himself not to breathe, should he ever get her scent, this close, he would lose any sanity that still clung loosely to his brain.

His arms wrapped around her, hands coming to rest at the small of her back, her left hand had found it's way into his hair, and he shuddered, while her right hand, toyed with his collar for a moment, before her fingers found their way beneath it, splaying over his skin. Letting go for a moment, and giving in, he slid his fingers beneath the hem of her shirt, just to where the tips of his fingers were touching her flesh, goosebumps raced across her flesh, and he smiled dreamily, as Audrey gasped in his ear.

This was too much, he sucked in a shaky breath, and could taste her scent. She smelled like honeysuckle, he hadn't smelled honeysuckle since his childhood, when he and his brother held their races through the field behind their house. Organizing them all day, only to have one race from the house, to the fence at the other end and back again. His mother grew it just behind his house, and he would smell it as his longer legs carried him to victory nine times out of ten.

Tightening his arms around her, he breathed deeply, and buried his face into her hair trying to smell more, as his lips brushed over the skin of her neck, he entertained the thought of kissing it for just a moment, before it was put to action, Audrey stilled, tensing for a fraction of a second, but that was all it took. In a matter of seconds he understood, all the reasons why they shouldn't be doing this, it was wrong, he hadn't had anything to drink in what felt like ages, he was dangerous to be standing here with her, standing so close to her.

Edward tried to pull away, but she held fast, and relaxed into him.

"It's okay." She whispered, hot breath rolling across his ear and neck, and he tensed. His whole body was warmed now, he should step away from her, he should but as much distance, he _should_ have stopped this before it happened.

A resounding _clang _came from behind him, and they stepped away from each other, standing again by the laundry, but he was still close enough that he could feel the heat from her fingers washing over his skin.

"Shit!" Lionel rounded the corner, gripping his naked toes, "How many times do I have to tell those kids to not move shit in here?" He asked them, as he moved to get something to eat, pausing as he did to look them over, his eyes scanned from Audrey to Edward skeptically, "What's up?"

"Nothing," Audrey said quickly, "We were just talking, and Ed was about to help me with some laundry." She said looking up at him, and he nodded absentmindedly, and ducked around the stream of sun that had kept him immobilized moments before, to the other side of the table, and he wondered briefly why he had not thought to duck under it before.

"About what?" Lionel asked, directing his question at Edward.

"The sun," Audrey answered, looking at Edward instead, as she passed him a T-shirt in the shadows, "He couldn't remember what it felt like."

Stilling watching them, as they silently folded their clothing, and Edward smelled coffee faintly, and he looked up to watch Elvis turn from making a pot, and locking eyes with him, "And now?"

Dropping his eyes, for a moment as Audrey passed him another article of clothing, their fingers brushing in the process, "I don't think I'll ever forget again."

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So what do you all think? Yes? No? I hope you all ejoyed it, I'm not sure if I will be doing more like this one, or if I will expand this, I have been thinking about it, but am not sure. Let me know what you all want!


	2. Chapter 2

So I cannot convey just how stoked I am that those of you out there read and reviewed and liked it, seriously I saw the reviews and went through the roof.

In answer to BW-girl's question, I'm not sure when this would be in the movie, probably the first night they spent in the vineyard. It was just something that got me thinking, I might follow along the story lines, that is still an unknown in my mind. Anyway, I hope you all like this chapter as well.

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Edward watched Audrey carefully over the next couple of hours, he had tried not to, and when that failed as it was inevitable to do, he at least tried to keep his musing over her discrete but it was hard to ignore that fact the Elvis had been watching him closely since this morning. He still understood that it was a mistake, and as soon as he could find it within himself to gain control when in close proximity to her, Edward would tell Audrey this. But for now, he settled to just watch her.

She enjoyed the children, there was no getting around that. Audrey would listen carefully as they spoke to her, as though everything they were saying was of the utmost importance, even though the one she cared for the most didn't actually speak. He had learned his name was Samuel, and that he was five years old, he had watched his father be turned, and eventually kill his mother at the tender age of three, and he hadn't spoken a word since. She payed more attention to him, then the rest of the adults who were attempting to make conversations, especially the men in the camp, Edward tried to tell himself it was a coincidence that he went ridged every time one of those men stood a little closer then was actually necessary for her to be examining a crossbow.

"So." Lionel breathed, throwing himself down on the couch next to Edward and looking over at him.

Edward waited, letting his eyes roam all over the room, resting more often then not on Audrey, but Lionel said no more, only watched him , and Ed gave in to look at him, "So?"

"What exactly was going on this morning?" He asked, taking a long slug out of a coffee mug, but the liquid inside was amber and smelled nothing like coffee. Immediately Edward knew what Elvis was talking about, but as his eyes flicked round the room, again coming to a halt on long brown hair pulled back into a ponytail, or more importantly the neck attached to said ponytail. His fingers tingled, in a tease of warmth at the memory of it, it had been softer then he remembered human skin to be, or softer then he had ever felt before, he could feel her heartbeat from across the room, and see it pulsing in her neck, he had been so close to that neck this morning, and she had let him be.

He had never been offered such a gesture, never had someone trusted him so completely before, it scared him beyond belief. Edward had only been mildly aware that Elvis had been watching him, watching Audrey. Panic crossed his face, and he gripped Edward's arm tightly, whistling a tune the he didn't recognize.

Many turned confused, and wary looks toward Edward, still uneasy of his presence. But not Audrey, her head snapped around and she locked eyes with Edward as they passed on their way to Lionel's, with a jerk of his head towards Edward that he didn't understand, Audrey's eyes got wide, and she looked concerned at all the others standing around them that were watching as this was happening, and then back at Samuel who had been in her lap. Placing him on the ground she, whispered something to him, making him grin, and she walked away. He wanted to shake his head, as she neared him, he wasn't ready to talk to her yet, he had never considered himself to be a coward, but if there was a cowards way out of this he would consider it.

She gripped his wrist, and he thought that his skin got hot much too quickly, but allowed himself to be pulled after her, pretending that he couldn't smell her, and that he didn't like it. Pretending that this situation was okay with him once his eyes cast around him and found Elvis still seated some ten feet behind him, Edward tried to plead with his eyes, because Lionel knew. He knew something had happened, that something was amiss, why was he doing this. Edward barely noticed he was being pulled down a corridor he didn't know, and wasn't even sure he had noticed before, he had only been there one night, and he had found something else to capture all of his attention in his time there.

"Where are we going?" He asked, only finding himself half surprised when she just glanced at him, and walked on, after several paces she dropped his wrist and flexed her fingers idly, like she was trying to return feeling to them, he still followed as she didn't slow down, the downward slope, and the way the air was getting cooler told him they were going further underground.

She took two rights, and turned to face him, Edward stopped on his toes to avoid running her over. They stood very still, and Audrey looked him over, but not in the way he had hoped she might, but like she was checking for something, evidently she didn't find it on his person because she set on examining his face, looking over his features, his chin, to his mouth, to his nose, to his eyes. She looked from one to the other, and then her gaze went out of focus, and she reached a hand out to him. For a moment, it looked as though she were about to cup his face, and he resisted the urge to recoil away from her, the last thing he needed was for her to come onto him more blatantly then they had come onto each other that morning.

But she didn't, her finger ran along the lobe of his ear, and he gave himself a pat on the back that he had given no verbal cue that this was going to be the death of him if she kept it up for any length of time. But she didn't skimming over the opening of his ear, she fingered the shell of it, and almost at once he knew what she had seen. His ears were becoming pointy at the ends, and grotesque looking.

He brushed her fingers away from his ear, and took several steps to the right so he could walk around her, "You're thirsty."

"No, I'm fine." He lied not looking at her, he hadn't thought about human blood in this sense in a long time, it was always thinking of human blood as a means to something else that could help them, something else that could possibly fix them.

"You never answered me yesterday," She said quietly, and when he turned questioning eyes on her, she offered an explanation, "When I asked you how long it had been since you had, had human blood, you didn't say anything. So?"

"So?" He said back, telling himself he was not being childish by not answering her, but rather there were things that were none of her business, and how much blood he consumed definitely fell under the category of none of hers or anyone else's business.

"Hey!" She said irritatedly to him, as he had turned away from her, "There are children up there, children who have the rest of their lives ahead of them, and mothers who would very much like to see there sons and daughters grow older, and fathers who want to be able to look there sons in the eyes the day that they become men. Just because you are some renegade vampire who doesn't like the path he chose, doesn't mean I'm going to let you ruin someone else's life so you can act superior to everyone else."

Edward dropped his shoulders and looked back at her, all the sadness, and ghosts of bitterness she had heard in the inflection of his voice that morning, shining in his eyes, "I didn't chose this." He said quietly, so much so that she missed it the first time, "I didn't chose t become a vampire." He repeated, when she asked him what he had said.

"What do you mean?" Audrey asked, placing nervous hands into her pockets.

"I wanted to stay human, I was going to run. I had everything packed, I had all of my belongings, and I was going to go. I didn't know where, and I didn't know how I was going to get there in one piece, but it was better then the alternative. As I was leaving my brother showed up, at once it was like I could feel it, the change that he had undergone, he looked different, he was always one to tan, and he looked so odd without it. But as soon as he looked at me, I knew, I mean I guess I had known for a while that he would chose to turn, it would be the best decision of his life in his eyes. Never having to die, never having to stop the party," He looked at his hands, and sighed, playing idly with his pinky, "I told him I was leaving, and he freaked, he told me he couldn't lose me, and I tried to tell him he wouldn't be losing me, because I had already lost him. His expression went blank, and he just looked at me for a long moment. That's all I remember, next thing I know, I wake up on my kitchen floor." He rubbed his neck gingerly, and for an instant the palest skin she had ever seen came into view when his collar moved, pale skin with raised edges in the shape of a bite mark.

Audrey watched him for a long moment, unsure of what to say, of how to say it, how to proceed. Looking at his hands again, he raised his eyes to hers, and even thought several feet separated them now, they might as well have been standing not doing laundry again, "Four days."

"What?"

"I haven't had a substantial amount of human blood in four days." He said through gritted teeth, he felt disgusted that he had to do this.

Audrey nodded absentmindedly, and strode past him, retrieving a wine glass from a wooden table, and for the first time Edward thought to glance around him, they were in a wine cellar. He looked from bottle to bottle, wine had been something his mother loved. He remembered how her eyes would glaze over whenever she talked about one day, when they had the money, she would turn the field behind their house into a full fledged vineyard, Edward would always wonder to himself where they would keep the cellar. Smiling at the memory of his ten year old self telling Frankie that when they got the vineyard they were going to put the cellar in his room, and send him out to live amongst the grapes.

His smile faded, and he covered his nose and mouth,and dared to glance over his shoulder at Audrey. She was sitting calmly at the table, her fist clenched, blood trickling over his fingers, and coming to fill the wine glass near half full. He watched her, his stomach turning flips as he did, he should be disgusted, and even lied, telling himself he wasn't even a little bit turned on by this act. Standing she thrust the glass out to him, and he gingerly took the stem taking care to almost hyper extend his arm, not wanting to be any nearer to her then he need be while she continued to bleed.

Grabbing a rag off of the table, she began to tie it around her wound, and he realized, they had set up a system. Elvis and Audrey had planned for what might happen should he not be getting enough blood, and he brought himself to be touched by the gesture. He stared down at the crimson ooze in his glass, and swallowed hard, wondering if he could even throw up anymore, because he was almost certain that this was the feel you get just before your stomach caves, giving up all that you have half digested.

Raising it near his lips, he took a whiff, and stiffened at the feeling of pleasure from somewhere deep inside, knowing that it wasn't coming from him. Closing his mouth he almost turned it away, choosing to remain as human as possible for as long as possible, but Samuel's face flashed before his eyes, bright blue eyes watching his every move, the only one here who didn't fear him, and the one there who should fear him the most.

But he opened it again, and the rim of the glass touched his lips, he looked up. Audrey was watching him. Her blood was millimeters from his mouth, and she was studying him, she could honestly expect him to drink her blood in front of her, that was insane, that was disgusting. But she watched him still, her eyes, not focusing on the glass in his hands, but locked on his eyes not once straying. He tilted his hand just a tad, and it touched his lips, and flowed over. It was thicker then he was used too, he preferred it to be diluted with something else, so he could at least make believe that he wasn't killing someone by doing this.

He expected her to cringe, to turn away from him, and find something else to look at when the sight of him, literally eating a part of her was too much to bear, this he could handle, that he could process. But her jaw fell slack, and she breathed deeply, her pupils dilating. He wanted to stop, he had drank at least half, that was enough, he didn't need anymore for a while. But he didn't, he drank the whole glass, and forced himself not to pay attention to the way it tasted, focusing instead on just how brown her eyes were. He hadn't seen brown eyes in what felt like years, in truth it probably had been. He had loved brown eyes, his mother had them, his brother had them, and he had wished that he could have them, but he had been stuck with green. Reminding him of the very man he hated more then anything in the world, because they mirrored his in every way down to the flecks of gold tat dusted his eyes.

Edward set the glass down on the table, and stared at her, she had managed to bandage her hand, either without looking, or he had taken much longer then he had thought working up the courage to drink. She strode slowly over to him, and he told himself no to breathe, the scent of her, and her blood was filling his head, and giving him some very unhealthy thoughts. Picking up a lose piece of bandage from the table, she hooked it over her thumb, and slowly brought it to meet his lips.

Stilling completely, his body ridged from head to toe, his whole system on red alert. Carefully her thumb swiped from left to right, along his lower lip, and back again, and Edward found it hard to control the almost unbearable urge to part his tightly shut lips. Dropping her hand away from him, once she seem satisfied with her job having been finished, he saw that she had been swiping excess blood from his lips, watching him for a long moment, she almost seemed nervous. Before she spun on her heel, and left.

Edward touched his lips, as he sat in the chair, dropping his head to the cedar, and telling himself over and over again. That the wish she had let him have the rest on his lips, wasn't something he truly wanted.

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Alright, again a huge thanks to the two of you the have reviewed. It seriously rocked my world, I never thought I could get so excited over something like that, but it was one of the best feelings in the world. So please, I beg of you, give that feeling back to me and review again!


	3. Chapter 3

So here you all are. In answer to BW-girl's question. I will eventually work in some more resistance, and cure stuff, but I'm slow like that, I like to gradually bring that stuff in, because the truth is crap happens over time, but it will be in there I promise. I'm not sure if I will switch between view points, or not. I've tried it before, but I can never get it the way I want it, because I like being able to give an over all discription rather then just what one person saw or thought, but it's possible I will put that in sometime later. Thanks a whole lot for your suggestions! I love it when people give me ideas for plots! So feel free to do it again!

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Edward rolled over for the one hundreth and eighty-second time. He knew this of course, because he had been counting, he had been laying in a cot next to Samuel since the last few night owls had braved asking him if he was going to hit the sack any time soon. For a moment he considered telling them the truth, that he didn't sleep anymore, but into his mind came the look of Audrey's genuine surprise when he had told her this. The last thing he needed was forty or so people, who made no big show of masking just how much they distrusted him, to know that while they peacefully slumbered, in and out of concsiousness and coherency that he would be lying awake mere feet from their frail, and defenceless bodies.

So lie down he did, when asked, he nodded, feined a yawn and walked slowly to the room Audrey had shown him his first night there. Since the incident where he had drank her blood only one week ago, things had not gotten better. Every other night, as the sun set, and people began to settle in from their nightly meetings about removal and retrieval, a whistle from across the room could be heard. Not one of urgencey as it had been last time, but merely as though Lionel was whistling for no one in particular. He and Audrey would look up from what they were doing, as several others did, but instead of inclining their gazes towards Lionel, their eyes would lock.

The first time he had shook his head at her. He would never again be put through something like that, he wan't going to drink her blood, and she couldn't make him. But with a stern set of her jaw, she sauntered off towards the wine cellar, and he entertained the thought of letting her walk down there without him following. But before the thought had finished forming, his feet were moving, as he set out after her. All she did was incline her head towards the table, where a glass already sat.

"Am I going to need my crossbow?" She asked teasingly, and he caved. Her smile playing him, like the perfect con. He didn't even try and argue anymore. Their eyes would meet, and a slight incline on Audrey's part, and he would set off. Disappearing into the wine cellar, returning several minutes later, throughly disgusted with himself, though still he said nothing.

He didn't know where the blood was coming from, and he didn't ask. Because he felt sure that the only way he could keep going through with it, was to live under the impossible hope that he didn't know the person whose blood filled his glass. Ignoring the thought that he could tell it wasn't Audrey's blood, and telling himself firmly each time this thought would flit across his mind, that he couldn't tell the difference between blood.

Now on his back, he looked over at Samuel, startled to find himself being watched, normally he was one to have sensed these things, but he had been to lost in thought to notice baby blue eyes taking in his every move.

"Hey Sam." He said softly, as the boy nodded his greeting to him, curiousity still lingering in his eyes, as though to tell him that he knew Edward didn't sleep, but couldn't understand why. But Edward knew better then to try and explain this to him, because with the exception of Audrey and Lionel, Sam was the only other person in this place that didn't look at Edward as though he was afraid any second he would snap and kill them all. Saying nothing Ed rolled to his side, and faced Samuel completely, watching him back.

Staring at each other, Edward was counting the seconds as they ticked away, after all these years patience came easily to him, as did counting. When he had first been turned, and found that he was never tired any longer, he would lay in a bed, and refuse to get out, for hours on end counting the night away, determined that he would spend eight hours a night in a bed, sleeping or otherwise. Ten minuites in, and Sam's eyes became droopy, and he fought hard against it, but by fourteen minutes his eyes shut and stayed that way.

Closing his eyes, Edward didn't bother to try and will himself into sleep, he had tried that for the better part of two years after he had been turned. Now he did it simply because he was the most human thing to do. But hearing muffled footsteps and knowing it was coming from twenty paces away was about as unhuman as it was possible to be.

He turned to face the doorway and watched an elongated shadow pass through in the light that remained on in the middle of the front room for those who didn't posess the ability to see in the dark. Silently Edward rolled the sheets off of himself, and stood glancing around he looked for his shirt, wondering where it was he had tossed it too, but gave up in his search for it when he smelled nothing. Every human gave off a distinct smell, and for the most part so did every vampire. But he could detect nothing, slowly he moved around the corner.

A figure was breathing heavily and facing away from him. Long fingers, and grotuesque wings, a balding head, and claw like feet. Edward stopped breathing, and glanced around him, a crossbow was only inches from him lying on a table, and cutlery on the table after that. He could kill this thing, he had done it before, but how could he do it without waking everyone else. Just as he made the decision to move, the head snapped around at an angle no living creature should be able to make.

But the glowing eyes weren't looking at him, they were looking beside him. Edward didn't dare take his eyes off of the creature before him, his fingers had only just curled around the crossbow, when he smelled him. A tiny hand wrapped around the fingers of his left hand, and had Edwards heart worked, it would have stopped beating right then. He didn't even have to look to know who it was.

_Samuel._

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How is that for a cliff hanger? I hope I won't have to make you wait too long for the conclusion of this chapter, so tune in next time for the wrap up! And don't forget to read and review, about how this sucker should die! Or if he should die at all!


	4. Chapter 4

Glowing eyes narrowed in on Samuel and I felt him stiffen in fear. His fingers clamped around mine in a silent plea to save him. Everything was silent, like all the noise in the world had been sucked from the room, it was facing us full now, and raising it's hands high above it's head. Samuel cried out, and dove behind me. This breaking of the silence seemed to give the monster permission to attack. I centered the shots from the crossbow into his chest, and they met flesh with a _thunk_ but it didn't appear it had felt them at all.

Samuel had a vice grip on me, and moved as I did. I could hear the footfalls somewhere behind me, Samuel's shriek undoubtedly having woken someone, and every part of me hoped it would be Elvis. I ducked behind a pillar as claws scrapped over my head, lodging themselves in the flimsy plaster. His moment of immobility allowed me to grasp the kitchen knives that were lying on the table, one in each hand, when a whip of brown caught my attention.

_No!_

I screamed inside of my head, knowing that if Audrey were there I wouldn't be able to think properly, I was having enough trouble as it was with Samuel being there. The head turned at it's unnatural angle to stare at Audrey and he took a deep breath, his eyes fluttering as he did. Armed with a crossbow Audrey didn't hesitate to fire, but it didn't slow this thing down. He took deliberate steps towards her, like a hunter stalking it's prey, backing Audrey further into the corner of the room.

Every part of me screamed in agony as I could only assume what would happen if I continued to stand still. I took a step towards the monstrosity and I watched Audrey watch me over it's shoulder, but the beast took no notice, I could tell he was consumed with the slamming of her warm and very much alive heart, I could feel it beating from where I stood clear across the room. Sweating hands took hold of my bare arms and I flinched.

Taking my eyes from what had once been a man in front of me, I looked towards Samuel and motioned for him to close his eyes. Terrified he shook his head, and watched the winged creature gaining space on Audrey, I wonder how it was that he had such control over himself, I supposed he was like Frankie in that way, always a showman. I took two fingers and ran them down his face, over his eyes which closed out of instinct, but thankfully that remained that way.

I took his other hand and put this fingers through the belt loop of my jeans, as I took more steps forward. Audrey had been hitting him with everything she had, and it had slowed significantly but such blood couldn't possibly be wasted just because of a little agony. I could remember those moments just as I could remember everything else, when blood was the only thing you strive for when blood was the most real thing you had felt in years. Even with his back to me, I could tell he was too bloodthirsty to quit.

Samuel didn't protest as I pushed him towards the stairs that would lead to the cots where Elvis slept, his eyes flew to mine with a silent plea I didn't meet, and he moved into the shadows and down the stairwell. It paused in front of her, and tilted his head, opening it's mouth as though to speak, but from it's mouth came the most horrid of screams, too loud to comprehend, and so high that Audrey covered her hands and crumpled instinctively.

Teeth bared, he advanced with a speed he didn't use before and I wondered if he could have moved like that all the time or if the knowledge of fresh blood gave him the strength. Either way it didn't matter, I would remember very little about those next few seconds. Later in life I would try and recall those moments, with nothing but flashes, feelings and smells.

A flash of my own hands driving the knife into his slimy flesh, the feeling of ooze as it rolled over my fingers. The smelled of rancid human excrement, my second knife cutting across his throat very nearly severing his head from the rest, and more ooze all over my chest, and he dropped, limp like a rag doll at my feet. He smelled of blood, but it held no desire over me, nothing about blood was appealing in that moment. I opened my eyes and saw Audrey staring up at me, and I noticed she too had been sprayed in something black, looking down at my chest and arms I realized so was I. This things blood had been black.

I dropped the knives, and could hear footsteps from a distance, but everything was underwater, everyone was moving slowly. Audrey was one her feet, and her arms were around me before I noticed or could react. I saw Elvis trying to keep Samuel from seeing anything, but the young boys persistence and agility allowed him to sidestep Elvis with what appeared to be ease, before they both stopped dead in their tracks. Ignoring that Audrey and I were wrapped up in an embrace.

Without words Elvis grasped the creature by it's hind legs and drug it along behind him, Audrey moved to shield me from the sun that streamed in through the door Elvis had opened. Faintly a hissing sound from outside and I knew it was over. There was no telling how long we stood there, arms around each other, breathing deeply. Time didn't matter in that moment, but she would always be good at clouding my mind like that. All I would remember thinking mattered was that I could still hear the delicious beating of a very wet and healthy heart inside of her, churning out life by the second, and it was glorious.

When we finally did manage to step away from each other, Elvis was there to eyes us scornfully, but say nothing of it. Just holding out a hand to us, the smell of that thing hit me again, and it made me cringe there was something about it that couldn't seem to sit right with me.

"We found this on him." He said turning it over, and wiping away from of the slime, making it recognizable to me.

"A tracking device?" I asked, and Lionel nodded.

"Military used this tacit before within in first few years of the change. You let a man go rouge and set him loose in a field, when your hungry you can find humans better then anyone in the world. Only problem was that their rouges seemed to be a little to undisciplined to handle themselves around fresh blood, so they canned the experiments and set to hunting down humans like deer."

"You think the military is behind this?" Audrey asked, but seemed convinced of this already.

"Well that's the other thing," Elvis held up his left hand, and dripping with black ooze, handing from a chain were a set of dog tags, "Found em' in the ashes."

"This makes sense," I said to them, nodding my head and piecing it all together, "It seemed like he had remarkable control over himself even when he was surrounded by all the smells of human flesh, he took the time to stalk Audrey make her feel scared, and he didn't have to, but he still managed to do it." Taking the tags from his hands I rubbed my thumb over the metal making the name visible.

"Donovan, Mycah," Lionel said without looking, clearly having already taken it upon himself to investigate, "Mean anything to you?"

I stared down at the name in shock for a moment, "Yes actually-I think-I know this man."

Audrey stepped away from me, and only with the acknowledgment of it's loss did I realize she had been holding my hand this entire time, "What?"

"Well, I knew him through Frankie. They were in the same battalion even before the change, he and Frank went to make the change together and when the military issued that any and all active soldiers make the change they kept all of them together. Something about the politics of it's principal, I don't remember exactly why, but I'm sure it was him."

"This was a suicide mission, no one expected that boy to make it back alive. He knew it, his superiors knew it, does walking into direct sunlight sound like the kind of thing this kid would sign up for?"

"I don't know, like I said I didn't know him that well, he was Frankie's friend not mine."

Nodding Lionel looked around at those who had woken, and those who were watching them intently ready for answers, "It's not safe here anymore, we have too many people. I'm sure he could have smelled us a mile away even if he was bloodthirsty."

"Hes' right," I said speaking directly to Audrey for the first time, because already she was shaking her head, telling me she wouldn't allow the group to be split up, "We need to disbanded for the time being, set up a way to communicate with each other, without being in the same place."

"Like a command post." Lionel offered.

"Right," I agreed, and turned back to Audrey, "Some place far off the grid that we could leave a set of people there long term, and have others pass through every so often to bring news, supplies, thing like that."

A war was waging inside her, I could see she knew Lionel and I were being reasonable, but she didn't want to leave anyone exposed for any length of time, but I knew she would side with Lionel and I, I couldn't tell you how, but I knew. Finally she nodded, and looked to the people around the room.

"Alright, and where do you suggest we find this immaculate hide out? It took us almost seven months to find this place, and another three to make it livable," Audrey reminded Elvis, as she gestured about the winery, and he nodded at Edward confirming these statements, "Where could we possibly go that is ready now?"

"My house." I said suddenly, having thought it over, "Well my old house, my moms old place. I bought it after she died, it's being maintained, it's fully functional and livable, and it's about thirty miles out of town, far enough away that it was be a hassle to search, yet close enough that it is only moderately annoying to drive downtown." It was perfect.

"Okay so we have a place to stay, their are still arrangements to be made. Who would stay at this house?"

"You, and Edward, it is his place after all." Lionel said like it was the simplest thing in the world.

Audrey and I shared a look, before she shook her head, "Why me?"

"Well we can't very well kick Ed out of house and home, but no one here will go within on hundred miles of that place if it is just on vamp out there by himself, you calm these folks, they listen to you and they trust you. You trust him, they trust him him. Monkey see, monkey do. You follow?"

She nodded, and glanced at me again, "If I'm stuck there I need you out there, providing transportation. You're the only one I trust to do it besides myself."

Lionel had the gall to look bashful at her praise, and she laughed. I could feel small eyes on me, and I turned to look at Samuel he had black spatter on his face, Audrey turned to look where I was concern instantly wrapping it's way over her features, she knelt beside him, and wetting a dishrag she had taken from an over turned table began to dab at the marks, "Elvis," She said, and he turned to look at her, "I am keeping him with me."

Elvis nodded at her, and then at me, "We have some other places to stash people, but we need to start by seeing that house of yours. You, me, Audrey and Sam will leave tonight so me and the rest of them can travel by day tomorrow. But for now, I think I'll head back to bed." He said stretching and yawning.

"Lionel," I asked, and he barely turned his head towards me without slowly his stride any, "Do you think I'll be able to live with her?"

He smirked and shook his head lightly, "I think you are gonna need a lot of luck."


	5. Chapter 5

Edward walked silently down the old hallway, blocking out the memories this place held as best he could, focusing his attention on the voices he could hear coming from near the back of the house. As the volume of he two people rose he knew immediately where they were, and he halted outside of the doorway to Frankie's old bedroom. It had been changed since his brother had last seen fit to come home. The holes that had been punched and kicked into the walls in a fit of rage that their mother had been killed , were now filled with plaster and had been painted over with a chilled mint green color that Edward had thought was nice and gender neutral. This had been up until the point when the life he had so desired, had been ripped from his grasp without permission, or regret.

A life filled to the brim with fabricated thoughts he was so sure would one day become fond memories, memories of a wife, of children running around this very house, the brown eyes he so desperately craved, yet still lacked, shining up at him, Sunday picnics, he could never have, because of it's obvious emphasis on _Sun_, the New York Times crossword puzzles filled up with black ink, visits with Uncle Frankie, and other family members he knew now, that he would long outlive.

Samuel was lying in the new twin bed Edward had placed against the wall you face when you first enter the room, the dark forest green comforter that the decorator had told him complimented the walls nicely, was pulled up and tucked under his chin, and he was watching Audrey intently.

She was speaking softly to him, and his eyes were beginning to droop, he flashed a look to Edward, his only indication that he had seen him at all was a twitch of an eyebrow, but Edward couldn't help but feel he had just been the recipient of a hearty goodnight. Audrey rose and kissed his forehead, and suddenly he was very jealous of the five year old boy, thought just for an instant, because Samuel turned his crooked smile to Edward, and rolled over curling his knees o his chest and settling in for the night.

Audrey had to resist the urge to gasp, and clutch at her heart at the sight of Edward standing in the shadows, his eyes glowing and floating ominously in mid air, but it wasn't as though he hadn't know he had sent her heart into a frenzy at the sight of him glowing in the darkness. He moved slightly to allow her room to pass by him, but only the space she positively needed, and not an inch more, he pulled on the handle and shut the door. He followed her back down the hallway without thought; he knew she would be heading for another bedroom, the back bedroom no one had ever needed to use.

He should have turned as they passed the bathroom on the right, but he didn't, he should have let her be as he followed her past the doorway to the office space he had never found a use for, but he didn't, as they passed the archway that led to the sunken living room, Edward paused, looking over the high windows that were supposed to allow lots of natural light into the otherwise unremarkable room, which now had deep, dark shades bolted over them, leaving the room rather dreary, and even at times down right depressing to even the more optimistic of people. But his feet moved again, carrying him in the opposite direction of the one he should be traveling in.

She turned all of the sudden and he stopped on the balls of his feet in order to keep room stumbling into her, and found himself swaying to a halt impossibly close to her face, and she flicked her eyes back and forth between both of his for several long moments.

"Thanks for letting us stay here." She said softly, and Edward nodded, content to just look at her for the next several millennia. There conversation died a tragic and all together violent death, and neither made signs of reviving it, or even attempting to.

She stood nose to nose with him for a long while, flicking her eyes back and forth between his, as they glowed florescent amber, his eyes, however, did not move, they had focused in on her lips and stayed there, he didn't need to look at the rest of her face to know it. He had, somehow, managed to memorize it long ago, the plains of her cheekbones, the curve of her ear, the bright eyes which always seemed to be thinking something or another, all of it he knew. Her lips twitched, and he was brought out of his daze.

"You're welcome." He said finally, and glanced at the doorway she had halted at, and she followed his gaze, as he fingers grazed the door handle, pushing lightly to open the door that had been left ajar.

Ice blue walls, and crimson bed coverings, photos of Italy, Rome, Greece covering the walls. Pictures that Edward tried desperately to let no one know he had taken them himself.

"Goodnight." He said softly into her ear, the breath rushing across the back of her neck, Goosebumps sprang on her skin. Instantly he was flooded with the memory and feelings of the last time she had gotten Goosebumps because of him, and he had to curb the growl that rose in his throat.

She gasped softly at the memory of it, and whirling around to face him, her fingers brushing his, which had come to rest on the doorjamb. They both stilled, and stared at each other, her fingers were warming his, and he was greedy for it. Ever since that morning, he had been pining for the warmth of humans, much the way he had when he was first turned, but he found that now, only one human's warmth would do. He could feel the slamming of her heart in the tips of his fingers as they met her palm.

Audrey let out a rushed breath of air she seemed to have been holding for far too long, and the minty tinge of her breath hit him full on, and warmed his face, he moved closer unconsciously, leaning towards the warmth she provided. With a groan the self-control he had worked so hard on keeping around her, crumbled, and his arms were around her, pulling her flush against him, greedily stealing the warmth she so effortless flaunted. Sliding her arms around him, allowing him to freely take more then his fill of it, she let out another rush of hair she couldn't remember taking in the first place.

His fingers were skirting her shirt, and meeting her raising flash, his mind seeking not blood as he would have thought, but warmth, the only thing he wanted from her was warmth. He had not truly been warm in almost ten years.

Their embrace lasted longer the it should have, Edward knew this, but a voice from inside of him bellowed firmly that after eight years of solitude that this was his moment, and he could take it. Consequences be damned. This was the first time in a long time he would be selfish and take what he wanted.

The thumb of her right hand was rubbing circles on his shoulder, and he found himself bowing and flexing his back in order to keep as much contact with that particular phalange as was possible. He arms suddenly tightened on him, and he froze. All his confidence left him, every meaningless word of control he had been telling himself meant nothing, he dropped his hands, and backed away from her, attempting to ignore the stab of sorrow that she hadn't tried to stop him this time.

For a moment he had thought her wide eyes, and agape mouth were directed at him and his heart, had it still worked, would have sunken, leaving him with misery and despair for the rest of his infinite life. But she wasn't looking at him, she wasn't even standing in front of him anymore, she was moving beside him, taking something that hung just beside his left ear from the wall.

A woman was smiling at the two of them. She had long brown hair, which was braided loosely, her skin was a warm and honey color, and she was beaming for the camera, her eyes squinted to try and shield the sun that was behind the taker of the photograph. Her eyes, which were visible only through the slits of his eyelids in this particular shot, Edward no longer needed a photograph o show him what they looked like. He had never quite forgotten these eyes. Unlike many things from his human life, that had become fuzzy, and without meaning so sequence.

Her eyes were a wonder mixture of browns, and blues and hazels. Black as night rimmed the edges, but became the deepest of brows, until a starburst of blue so clear it made you want to dive into Hawaiian waters made a lazy circle, before become a softer brown the before.

Audrey stared dumbfounded for a long while, "You look just like her." She told him softly.

Edward smile, remembering all the times he had been told this over his life, and for some reason he never found himself bothered being compared to his mother, after all she had done for him and his brother, it felt like there could be no greater compliment.

She stared at the picture with thought etched across her features, and Edward had the urge to pull her back against his chest, wrapping his arms tightly around her, and find out what she was thinking about, but he knew he couldn't, and that he shouldn't. So he settled for rounding to stand in front of her, and stare over the top of the picture frame.

"What?" He asked, taking his gaze from his mother to Audrey.

"How did you lose her?" She asked quietly. Not looking up at him for fear she would find him angry at her questioning. But he wasn't, he was surprised, and when she finally brought herself to gaze at him, she found herself surprised that he was surprised at her question.

"How did you know I had lost her?" He questioned, trying to recall if he had said anything to her, he made a point to think of his mother often, but speak of her very little. This kept the moments when he felt to urge to curl up into a fetal position, and cry for his mother to a minimum.

"I lost both of my parents, and I don't know. I guess I just recognize it." She said simply, looking away from him.

"I'm sorry about your parents."

She smiled at him, and nodded, placing the photo back on the wall, she walked into the bedroom, and Edward couldn't have told you why. But again he followed her. Knowing full well he didn't really want to talk about his mother, but for some reason he wanted Audrey to know how kind and wonderful she had been. How loving and supportive a person she was. She sat on the edge of the bed and turned to face him, and patted the bed next to her.

He sat carefully, feeling the mattress ease under his weight, and the air hissing out of it to allow room or the two no perched on it. He tried to think of where to begin, he hadn't talked about it in so long, he feared he might not be able to remember, but the concern and curiosity in Audrey's eyes compelled him to find a place and go from there.

She found a more comfortable position leaning against the headboard, and watching him intently, as he flipped through his memories.

"My mothers dream as to have a vineyard, in the field out back, she and my father bought this home for the purpose actually, but it was my fathers income that supported us enough to keep the house and food on the table, and clothes on our back. Then when he left, my mother couldn't do it anymore, she couldn't find a good enough job with enough flexible hours to be there, like she wanted to be, for two boys." He paused letting himself sink into his memories; he could see his father not bother to look back as he pulled away in his pick up truck. He could see his mother standing on the porch in the early hours of the morning, whispering words of comfort to herself, until Edward finally managed to coax her back inside. He could see Frankie waking only to find his mother in tears in the living room, and his brother staring out the window.

"She tried everything to make ends meet, keeping a steady job, taking odd jobs whenever she could fin the time. But she got sick. So much so that a local shop owner finally took pity on us, and let me work on his cars for double minimum wage, but it wasn't enough. That was when the vampirism strain was first detected," His voice grew oddly cold and he clenched his hands at his sides, "They started hauling in people by the truck full to get them to test it, _'Eternal Life Can Be Yours!'_. They were paying people one hundred thousand dollars to take the drug, but there were risks. I tried t talk her out of it, and even once in a brave moment at fifteen, forbid her to go," He smiled at the memory of it, "But she wouldn't listen, she said we needed her too much to let a silly little thing like cancer take her away forever."

Edward glanced up at Audrey, she had her knees pulled into her chest, and her arms keeping the in place, her eyes dancing all over his face, taking his words and his memories effect on his expressions.

"They told us that my mother fell into the five percent of people who have such a severe rejection to the drug that they enter cardiac arrest. Apparently you weren't supposed to take the drug if you were taking any type of chemo therapy. But she lied and told them that she was in remission, and they gave it o her. Frankie and I were shipped off to live with my Aunt in Tacoma, and given a settlement of two million to make up for our loss." He finished, flexing his fingers idly, as they had been clenched for so long in fists it was getting hard to feel them.

Her hand covered his arm, and suddenly what had seemed a spacious room before was uncomfortable small, and his skin was beginning to warm all over the places where her hands weren't, but he desperately wanted them to be.

"No wonder you didn't want to be turned." She said scooting closer to him.

He wanted to tell her that she should be this close to him, but he couldn't find it within himself to tell her so. Just like he couldn't find it within himself to leave when they sat so long she finally curled up and fell asleep, but mostly like he couldn't find the will to stop himself from reclining back in the bed, and laying next to her, all night.


	6. Chapter 6

Hey! I know it's been a while, but now I'm on Spring Break, and I will hopefully be bringing this stuff a bit quicker, but please bear with me, you guys have been so supportive, and super legit though this whole thing, I just had to get this one to you as fast as is vampiricly possible! Hopefully you all enjoy it, and don't forget to review please!

Deuces!

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It had been four weeks since Samuel, Audrey, and Edward had moved into his families old home, they hadn't discussed the fact the Edward had lay awake beside Audrey all night, unless of course you counted the highly awkward moment when she awoke and looked him in the eyes, tyring to decipher what exactly this was supposed to mean to her. But Samuel had burst in a ball of silent energy, dragging Edward to the kitchen, and conveying with his eyes that he couldn't go another moment without food.

Now they had their routine in place. Breakfast, lunch and dinner fell to Edward, since he was the one who provided the most splendid meals, and he would watch with longing as the other two devoured his meals, but he could not partake of them himself. Audrey had offered on more then one occasion to take over the cooking, but Edward liked feeling like he wasn't just there for protection, cooking gave him a purpose, it mean for the hour or so that he was cooking, and the others were eating, he didn't have to deal with the memories of this place.

But there were still moments when he couldn't contain them, and he would stand in from the the stove for hours, remembering his mother, and his brother, until Audrey would find him, and he would smile at her, shake his head, and assure her nothing was amiss. Even though they both were well aware of his lies, she still let him them, and didn't press the issue.

Edward was alone in the living room. Even though it was eerily dark, it was still the happiest place in the house for him. Audrey had Sam at the other end of the house doing the laundry, he could hear her telling him that the colors were okay, but not the whites or anything black. But it was background noise to his memories, he was still reeling from the night before, Samuel had entered his room late in the night, Edward was pacing, preparing himself for the shipment that Elvis was bringing tomorrow. He was bringing food, blood, and two people that would be picked up the following morning, and taken to a safe location ten miles from here. He had been so distracted that he hadn't heard his approach, and he spun around wildly as the door opened.

In his hand had been a book, and he held it out to Edward, had his heart been anything but dead, it would have clenched in agony at the moment, as he remembered his brother. He used to read Frankie bedtime stories, once their mother was too exhausted to do more then fall into bed when she got home, that was of course when she was still coming home early enough to see them off to bed. He had read them so much that by the time Frank was seven and a perfectly spectacular reader he would still knocked tentatively upon his door each night, and ask him to read the stories to him, but Edward would impress his bother by not needing to read the books any more but recite them from his memory. It had always haunted Edward the night that he didn't read Frankie his books anymore. The day had gone all right, no problems at school, no problems at home, no particularly nasty fights to speak of during the course of the day, but that night Edward had been just on the cusps of fourteen, and he still can't tell you why, because he loved reading his bothers those books. But he snapped, Frankie had knocked on his door, asking as usual for the story, and Edward had snapped.

_"You're ten-years-old Frank!" He had shouted at him, pushing him out of his room, "You can read just fine, you can probably recite it now too I've read it to you so many times! Why can't you just read it yourself!" He had then promptly cut off Frankie, by slamming the door in his face. Trying to pretend that the image of tears welling in Frankie's eyes wasn't what kept him awake that night. But he couldn't really say that was entirely true, because he knew within his heart that the opposite was true of him._

_He could hear Frankie in the next room, he was throwing things around his room, his brother got like this when he was angry. Ever since his father had left, Frankie didn't know what to do with his anger, at least that what their school counselor had concluded, she said they should send Frankie to a professional, but they had neither the desire nor the funds to do this. Sending Frankie to a stranger to talk about things he would even tell Edward seemed like a gigantic waste of money. Something came hard against the wall that separated Frankie's from Edward's and then the house was silent. It hadn't seemed like enough time had gone by yet, for his brothers anger to be gone._

_Pulling the covers off of himself, Edward walked towards the room, standing outside of it for several moments, his fist hovering in front of the door, in case he got the courage to knock on it. He found it within himself, and knocked twice, nothing happened. He knocked again, as he grasped the knob and turned it slightly, giving Frankie the chance to scream at him to go away, which would have suited Edward just fine, because he hated seeing his brother like this and being helpless to stop it. But again, nothing happened. Fear rose inside Edward's chest, when it came to Frankie and his temper, something always happened._

_The door opened, and Frankie was on his knees, sweat was pouring off of him in waves that came without apparent end, Edward came towards him, surveying the room, holes were in the plaster, a lamp lay broken on the floor, and the stories Frank had wanted only an hour ago, were ripped to shreads and crumpled further still, lying discarded in the corner of his room, near the foot of his bed. Edward knelt beside his brother and tried to offer him a consoling hand, but Frankie reacted in a way Edward would have never thought possible. He screamed, not a word, just the noise, and back away from him, pushing with his feet trying desperately to get away until he met the edge of his bed, and found himself an acceptable distance from his brother._

_It was now Edward noticed that Frankie's knuckles were bleeding, he looked at the holes in the wall, and he now noticed the blood that was theretoo, he had never known his brother to inflict pain upon himself when he was anger, just take out aggression on things that couldn't fight back, like lamps, or books. But now he had hurt himself, and from the amount of blood, he had hurt himself badly, and he wasn't even reacting, he was still pounding the floor softly, trying to curb his anger and not attack his brother as well._

_"Frank, I'm sorry, I didn't read you the story." Edward told him, with as much sincerity as Edward had ever offered another person in his life._

_"I don't care!" He spat back at him, "I hate you!"_

_Edward knew he was speaking out of anger, but he couldn't deny his brother even saying it without meaning stung him very effectively, "No, Frankie you don't, you're just mad." He told him calmly, somewhere inside of his head he knew his brother wasn't going to listen to reason, but it was the only thing Edward knew anymore._

_"Yes I do, you're done with me just like dad!" Frankie stood and pushed past him, running out of the room, Edward should go after him, he had heard the front door open and slam, but he was rooted to the spot. His mother rounded the corner and looked about the room, her face falling._

_"What's happened?" She asked, coming to stand next to him, "Where's your brother?"_

_Edward shrugged, and pointed to the front door, which, he now saw, hadn't actually closed, it was swinging back open wide, and revealing a small figure kicking up dust behind him, as he ran like his life depended upon it, and his mother gasped, not bothering with shoes or the fact that she was only half decent, and took off after him._

_His head was swimming, was he really so much like his father? No of course not! So he didn't want to read his little brother a stupid bedtime story, that didn't mean he was going to walk out when the moment was right. Did it?_

Back from his memories, he took the book from his hands, and read from it. He remembered the book as clearly as he had at thirteen, but still h held the book in front of him, and Samuel let his eyes drop several times, for increasing periods of time, until he finally dropped them, and didn't open them again. Edward placed the book on his bedside table, and lay his head back against the wall. He wanted to cry, it had been so long he had last cried, he thought his might not remember how, but he got the feeling in his head, and tingles rushed across his face, stopping at his eyes as they started to prick little tiny pinpricks of pain, that would turn into tears.

Even though his mother had caught Frankie and brought him back to the house, and they had apologized and made up, never again did Edward read him another story, for any reason, he had always written it off as his brother growing up. But now he wondered if that was truly the moment, when he had lost his brother.

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So whatcha guys think? Whatcha feeling? Yes? No? Do you like the back story on Edward, would you rather I leave it out, remember ladies and gentlemen, I am only here to serve you up a piping hot meal of badass story! So read and review let me know what you want, and I shall deliver in thirty days or less! (Hopefully :])


	7. Chapter 7

What's up you guys! I'm back, and I hope I am better then ever! Here for you is my twisted mind toying with the lives of these completely amazing, yet totally imaginary, and sadly borrowed people, (and vampires :]) So I give toi you chapter 7 and don't forget to read and review, every time you do a fairy gets his/hers/their wings! Isn't that exciting :D

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Elvis pulled the car up in front of the house, the sun was setting, but there was still enough daylight outside to make the others he was carting around feel comfortable. Well, as comfortable as two humans could possibly be when staying with a vampire. They had been figgitting in the backseat since the beginning of the car ride, passing each other glances of discomfort and nervous energy filled the car, he wanted to tell them they weren't being discrete, but what good would it do? Why not let them feel they have their secret language all to themselves? He put the car in park, and opened his door, rounding to the back of the car to unload the supplies.

Audrey had opened the door, and stepped out to help, glancing just inside the shadows, where he knew Edward to be. He had tried to make it later in the day, because he knew Edward would want to help with the heavy boxes, but it hadn't panned out, his guests had been so nervous to travel after dark, he had been forced to leave while the sun was still high. Audrey struggled to get a box to the front door, and he saw for the barest moment a hand come out of the deep shadows, but retreat almost instantly. The boy had it bad.

He felt for Edward, he wanted so desperately to be human, it wasn't fair what had happened. Elvis tried to think of the past very little, he knew it was foolish to dwell on it, because it had already happened, and there was no way to change it. But for some reason, after the last conversation with the boy, he hadn't been able to get it out of his head, turned without question, without thought as to what would happen after it was done, by his own brother. There was still the look of protection and love in his eyes when he spoke of Frankie, and Elvis envied his forgiveness, and his acceptance. He liked to think he would be there in the same way for his family, but he knew that it wasn't so, Edward was in a league of his own. The last box was placed safely inside of the house, he turned to find he humans still inside of the van, peering cautiously out the windows. Edward's eyes glowing in the darkness, were something they were going to get used to, at least until tomorrow morning.

He made his way back to the car, and opened the door, motioning for them to step out. Which they did, hesitantly, and after another two coxing gestures, and an exasperated sigh. They were husband and wife, with a chip cut particularly deep on their shoulders, after their daughter got herself turned, and in mid explanation for her actions, lost control and attacked them. They walked slowly to the home, and Elvis was sure the only reason they were moving was because they could see the sun setting, and their combined fear was pulling hem to safety. He didn't really care what got them in the house at that point, as long as they stayed put once they were there.

"Well," He called inside, as Audrey shook the mans hand, and held the door open for them, "I'm off, Micah I'll be along in the morning to get them with the others." He waved, and the door shut, it was silent outside, he could see the sun dropping out of sight over the hill, and he studied the grounds, he had never actually looked at the house. There was a field out behind it and he remembered Edward telling him about his mothers desire for a vineyard, and he knew this would be the perfect place for it. Lots of warm nights, that got a bit chilling in the evenings, like the cool nights of summer, perfect for lemonade filled glasses. There were stepping stones leading to the back of the house, and he could see the edges of a garden, and what looked like an in ground pool. Small, but enough to satisfy two boys.

He opened the door, climbed inside, and even strapped himself in before he realized it. There was something off, something was amiss, there was something different about the air, the way it smelled, the way it tasted, it was different but he couldn't not tell how it was. Elvis squinted at the house, trying to decipher if it was something about the house that was changing. But it looked the same. Large aztec style home, with a red front door, four windows facing the outside, but you couldn't see in. His father had told him, that windows are like people souls, when they want you too you can see right into them, but when they don't all you have is an illusion to the inside of their heart.

But he drove away, he would never forgive himself for it, but he drove off. Down the dust of the driveway, and turned the corner, the house disappearing from view, even though he let his gaze linger on the rear view mirror where the house had just been before. Then he let it slip from his mind, brushing it off, as if it was simply his imagination.

Back inside of the house all was quiet, Edward and Audrey had decided that Samuel should stay in his room for the time that they had guests, they were on edge enough with a vampire in the house, they didn't need the imaginations of their guests running wild with possibilities of why it is Samuel doesn't speak. Edward had retreated with the bags to separate rooms of the house, and returned to his own room, feeling like he would love nothing more then to flop down on his bed, and sleep for the next several days. Feeling unwelcome, and even worse unwanted in his own home, took a lot out of him. Upon entering however, the sight before him, had him wide awake.

Audrey looked over at him, and shifted on the corner of his bed to face him better. He stuttered in his head, trying to come up with something to say, and everything he came up with seeming even worse then the last one that fluttered through his mind.

"Hi." He said suddenly, resisting the urge to now run from the room, find the nearest place with sun light, and bask in it until he was no more.

But she smiled, relieved that he had given her an opening to say something, "Hi." She said back. Their conversation lapsing back into silence. As she looked about his room. It was strange they had been here three weeks, and she had never been in her before now, and she had sat there for ten minutes and did little else but play with her pinky finger, she hadn't taken the time to look around and explore. Now that he was standing before her, and it was the exact wrong time to start examining his things, it was all she could seem to do.

A lifetime seemed to pass, and when she glanced back at the doorway, she found the door closed and vacant, Edward came to stand in front of her, and he seemed to tower over her, casting her face deeper into the shadows of the room. He came to take the seat beside her, his thigh brushing hers, and maintaining contact until the ankle where his curved away from hers.

"The only other room available was my room." She told him quietly, hoping he would understand her explination, and not offer her the couch, which would be the perfectly right thing to do, but she found herself testing the waters with him, she wanted to know without being told, whether or not, this was all one sided.

Edward nodded slowly, and looked at her, he was always seeming to do that lately, look straight at her, like he didn't care if she caught him anymore, like he wanted her to catch him now, "You can stay in here," The only functioning heart in the room, stopped, and for a breath of a moment they were the same, frozen in time, not moving not breathing not living, but his next statement caught her so off guard, that she was brought back to life much too early, "I don't mind to stay on the couch." He stood.

Her next movements were unplanned, and went unnoticed by herself for the span of three seconds. But the moment that her fingers wrapped around his hand, feeling slammed back into her like a house falling directly on top of her sensory system. She felt her thigh chilling chilling from where his had left hers, goosebumps racing up the backs of her arms, and spreading to her entire body, his fingers tightening around hers, and a rush of air and he spun back towards her so quickly, it was like he had never turned at all.

"You can't leave!" She said so desperately, that her voice cracked in the process, Edward stared confusion in his eyes masking something that burned behind his irises, "I mean-" She stopped and tried to find a way to recover her fumble, a class A way of doing that would be to regain proper thought and dop his hand, but his fingers were holding hers, and his thumb was moving microscopically across her knuckles, and she knew that she wouldn't, "I can't very well kick you out of your own room. You are already being treated like a virus by those people down stairs, and don't want to take this place from you as well." She told him gestguring to the bed, and regretting it immediately.

Just being alone with him was enough to send her into overdrive, but now she was touching him, and they were both staring at his bed. He nodded to her sympathy, "It really doesn't matter, I won't be sleeping anyway." He said, offering her a smile that at first glance could have been charming, but she looked at him long enough to find the sadness within it.

This fact about him being brought back to her immediate attention, sent memories flooding through her, about the first time she had touched him, and heat shot though her system, and somewhere within it, she found logic, and cunning, "But if you stay downstairs, what if one of the Jones' gets up, and sees you lying awake downstairs, they would head for the hill the moment they laid eyes on you."

Audrey patted herself on the back, she knew that the humans that would be passing though here were vital to his gaining the trust of the rest of the group, and he would go theough hell and high water not to destroy his chances with them.

Edward tilted his head to the side, she was right, he could only imagine the panic those people must be in at this moment, and he knew his eyes glowing in the darkness could be unnerving. He was at war with himself, the vampire part of him, which he told himself was minor at best, was screaming it's protest at this, it was dangerous for him to be alone in the same room with this woman while others were out of earshot, he knew that his staying with her all night several weeks before had been reckless, and he had promised himself he wouldn't put her in harms way, especially because of himself. But the human part of him, wanted her body heat, he longed to share a bed with another person, especially this person, this woman, whose fingers gently wrapped around his was driving him to the brink of insanity, his thumb was tracing invisible patterns on her knuckles and he couldn't bring them to stop, if just his fingers on her could do this to him, he didn't was to admit that he wanted to imagine what her warmth filling his sheets would do to his self control.

He wanted to tell himself that he had weighed all of the options before he was to a decision, but he knew that it was a bold faced lie at best. He wanted to tell himself that this was an okay decision, but he knew that it was irresponcibly at best, and down right dangerous at worst.

"If you slept on the couch, then you would be all sore and stiff in the morning, and I can't help you with those boxes, and who knows if Micha will offer to help." He said, intently watching their fingers, which had somehow moved, and his was inching towards he palm, and hers to his.

Audrey nodded at his statement, hoping rising within her, "And the Jones' will be so relieved to leave, I bet they won't even stop to offer their help."

Edward nodded to her, "So you'll stay in here tonight."

"So I'll stay in here." She willed her voice not to hitch at the thought.

Tonigh was the night, she would reiceve answers, tonight she would find out if he was letting her stay because he was being the gentleman she already knew him to be, or if he was letting her stay because he wanted her to stay.

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So there it is folks, I just want to take this opportunity to tell you all how much your praise and reviews mean to me, each one of you has a special place in my heart for all of the kind things you say. Now that the sap is finished :) We can move on to my begging you for reviews because my heart sings when I get the email I got a new one! So please, please, please, Read and review!


	8. Chapter 8

He paced back and forth like a caged animal. He had seen a documentary on the Bengal Tiger once, and a tigress took long strides to and fro, just as he did now, as a British or perhaps Australian voice over told him how she paced with deep thought. How anyone had known this information about a tiger he hadn't known, but it seemed silly to think of now. As a woman, a tigress in her own right, lay in his bed fast asleep. Her heart rate had slowed to the sleeping crawl he had become accustomed too from his time at the winery. She had been out for eighteen minutes, thirty four seconds and counting. Edward ran an unsteady hand though his hair and turned his gaze back to her, wondering briefly what she was dreaming of. He remembered the last time he had dreamed anything, or had been anywhere near sleep for that matter. He would have his last dream the night Frankie had turned him. The disorientation coupled with his lack of oxygen due to the gaping holes in his neck, and perhaps even the loss of blood had put him in a haze. He had then "dreamt", if you could even call it that, of a memory he had not known was still in his possession.

_Edward had entered his home, lazily unbuttoning his shirt, pulling the tails slowly out of his pants. The blinking of his answering machine throwing red, blurred shadows on the wall, for the barest of moments he thought of leaving it until later. The fatigue of the day was beginning to weigh him down like sandbags on his shoulder, and he wanted to sleep desperately._

_He could already feel the cool of his sheets around his bare back and shoulder, his knees curled tight to his chest, his own soft, slow breathing lulling him to his slumber. But abruptly he thought of his mother. He hadn't spoken to her in over a week. Her treatments took a lot out of her and she couldn't always muster the energy to call. But when he thought of moving another muscle without hearing her voice, a wave of homesickness rolled itself over in his stomach, and he felt sick._

_Taking long strides towards the machine, he thumbed the play button for a moment as another person crossed his mind. Fraknie. His brother was often calling him with his problems. Edwards hadn't seen the need to mind before, they had been few and far between in the beginning and he had taken it down as harmless. Then as the problems began piling up, he stuck with him out of a familial loyalty their father had never seemed to possess. But he had reached his wits end with his baby brother, though the love he possessed for him was strong, his patience was worn so thin you could see though it like glass. Deciding he'd chance it, he pressed. Taking the last button out of its hole as a friendly woman inside of his machine told him dates and times he never paid attention too. In the twenty three years since he had been taking off shirts each night never before had gotten caught in one, until that night. His fingers twisted at odd angles, and his elbow suddenly grew a mind all on its own and began operating like a child with an RC. When his brother's voice filled his ears, outwardly sighing and tipping his head back, he jerked furiously at his shirt, begging it just to rip and free him from his entanglement. But to no immediate avail._

_As he stopped struggling so heatedly and the sound of unrippable fabric, not ripping died away, he heard not embarrassment, not pleading in his brothers voice, but terror. Pure terror he hadn't heard since his brother had almost drowned in their pool when they were only kids. Carefully he maneuvered out of his button down with suddenly corporative elbows; he dropped it to the ground and hammed a forefinger into the rewind button. His brother's voice rang out in the small alcove one more._

_"Ed! Oh my God! It killed her! I just ident...It killed her! They said it was safe, those bastards! You have to...I can't do this! Please come!" The message cut out, as though the phone had been dropped or thrown or smashed, he couldn't be sure which. But fear sunk into the pit of his stomach, and he grabbed hold of his wife beater hoping to calm the waves crashing in his stomach, but it did nothing. His brain was in a fog, he couldn't think of his brother's number to call. He would think later the only reason that he left with keys in his hand was out of a deep seeded routine, which even when your world might very well be crashing down around you was still ever present. Mindlessly he drove; it was considered by him a miracle that he had even made it there uninjured._

_He wanted to take a moment to compose himself before he saw his brother; he wanted to ask him calmly to explain what was going on. He wanted to give a calm response to whatever news he got and be able to think rationally about the situation, he wanted to learn of his mother's health. But none of his desires were met this night._

_He sprinted from his car into the complex, not bothering to close either door as he tore inside Frankie's apartment. His brother sat on the floor of his kitchen, knees to his chest, eyes red, blood vessels obviously burst and beginning to swell shut. But he looked through his blood shot eyes at his brother towering over him frozen time, hands at his sides clenching and unclenching absentmindedly. His eyes dropped again and he didn't bother to pretend he wasn't about to begin a fresh bout of weeping._

_Edward knelt next to his brother, letting his hand hover above his head, and for a fraction of a moment, Edward was sure that he would pull away from him, as he had done when their father left, physical touch had never been a strong point in his life, mostly of his own doing, and eventually everyone else stopped trying. But he surprised even himself by leaning forward and reaching for him. Edward sat, back up against his brother oven, eventually getting him to go to sleep._

_Cracks had been spreading through Edwards heart from the moment his brothers message played at his home, as he traveled on the road lost in another world, they spread, holding his brother, putting off his own grief, so that his brother could recover and move on with his life. But now deep grooves dug themselves out, and finally with a deafeningly crack his heart finally broke, separating from its lifelong partner eternally. In a way it was a relief, to know that because it had now broken nothing else could hurt it. He and Frankie were now bound together never to be torn apart. It would be equal and they could rely on each other. He drifted off that night, thinking of this, and he felt one last crack break painfully, as though it knew already of his brother's imminent betrayal._

His memories dissolved steadily like ice in the heat of summer, and he found himself standing next to the bed his fingers absently stroking Audrey's flesh in a soothing way. Though still in slumber, her heart beat had risen and was pounding deafeningly in his ears. Her shoulder, which was currently trapped beneath his palm, was curling up and inward towards his touch.

Feeling returned to his body in a rush, as did conscious thought which had seemingly left his momentarily high and dry. His hand left her shoulder as though it were sunlight. But his swiftness to cease contact with her completely, he knocked off the lamp he had never had true use for. But now its purpose seemed to be putting him in a very compromising position as it shattered on his wooden floor.

Roughly awoken from her slumber, Audrey pushed her tangled brown tresses from her hair and looked up at him carefully. Her heart raced like she had been running, and her breath came out in harsh wheezes. He stared down at her face and eyes never wavered from the other. Her face was soft and relaxed from sleep, and was just beginning to get pink in her cheeks as the blood flow caught up with the unannounced pace of her heart.

"Hi." He said shifting uneasily from foot to foot, each equally uncomfortable to stand on at that moment.

"Hi." Edward's resolve began to crumple; sleep lingered in her voice, making it scratch in the most delicious ways.

Propping herself up on her hands, she surveyed what she could see of the room through the light in the bathroom, and she noticed the carpet disturbed where he had been pacing, finally she eyes him again, "Can't sleep?" She asked, offering him a smile.

Relief flooded him, and he found it easy to laugh at her joke, "Something like that," He nodded and sat down on the edge of the bed, his lower back brushing against her back, and each pretending that they didn't feel the jolt of electricity race throughout them, "Sorry I woke you."

She waved away his apology with her right hand, "Forget it." She meant this because, she hadn't ever intended to fall asleep, how was she supposed to get answers to her pressing questions conked out next to him, very much awake.

She rolled deftly over, onto the side he had been laying on, and reveled in the chill of the sheets, and got a fresh cold side of the pillow, but Edward wasn't paying attention to the euphoria on her face. All he had noticed was the shirt they had decided she would wear for the evening, was a V-neck, lower on her then he was sure it was ever on himself, nearly see through, and she wasn't wearing a bra.

Abruptly he thought this was a bad idea, and the best thing that had ever happened to him all at once. He slid underneath the sheets, and fought a groan as he realized she had also eighty-sixed the pants. Her eyes caught his, which had just been watching him, watching her legs.

Audrey smiled, and lay on her back, the covers hovering somewhere below her belly button, just above the end of his shirt, and he wanted to cringe. One thing was for certain, she wouldn't be falling asleep anytime soon.


	9. Chapter 9

_**So I keep trying to have this updated, I'm afraid I'll never be able to have it up weekly, too much plotting to do, too many things I tweak and change, you wouldn't believe how anal I am about these types of things. But here it is I really did try and make it timely, but it didn't really work out, but I have it up. Thanks to all of those who have stuck with me, and a big thanks to those that are new to the game and reviewed my earlier chapters (big smiles!) and and great big, fat, mad thank you to those that will review this chapter!**_

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The heat still lingering in the sheets, had put Edward in a very compromising position. He let his back sink into her heat, and a groan he thought he had let die in his throat, ended up coming out as a growl. Audrey had been laying back, fingering the white cotton of his comforter for sometime now. Edward had tried to say something, to end his agony, but he couldn't it would lead to things that had already been taken too far. Pacing for once had done someone some good, he realized that he had been playing with fire when it came to Audrey, and he had crossed some very nasty boundaries. She had honed in on a short piece of thread and had just enough to wrap it twice around her forefinger, before she would let it go.

He noticed now how small her hands were, as far as hands go. It was natural that as a man he would have larger hands then hers, that was just genetics, but looking from where his hand rested on his chest, to her own splayed out and playing with a piece of string, he was astounded at the difference. He sank lower into the depleting resuiovor of heat, as he thought about how his would threaten to completely absorb hers should their hands ever meet, and for some reason intertwine with one another. This thought was a sucker punch to the gut, he had no time or lead in to prepare for the thought that followed. He would never hold her hand, he could never allow it to happen. Just looking at the difference in size of their hands, shocked him back into a startlingly clear version of his reality. She was fragile. More then then because she was a human, there was something about her that simultaneously broke down parts of your heart, and kicked you in the gut at the same time, but she had no idea, because if she did she could never be so kind. So warm, and tender hearted. Power over people like that hardens peoples exterior long after their interior.

Wrapping the thread differently, he understood she meant to break it, and achieve with his comforter what she was trying to do with all people, rid it of it's imperfections. But as she tugged nothing happened, the thread didn't budge, but this was in no way a determent. She managed to wrap her finger tighter, twisting his comforter awkwardly, and he was forced to look away, as it lifted and he caught a brief sight of what lay beneath it.

He closed his eyes, and willed himself to forget he had ever seen that, but he knew the attempt was laughable, he could have a lobotomy and remember that moment. She gasped beside him, and he felt the blood of her blush rushing to her face, Edward sighed and turned back to find that instead of snapping the thread, she had pulled in that perfectly imperfect way, which you always risk when removing loose strings from fabric, ripping more threads out, and lengthening the infected strand. Her hands cupped her mouth, and her cheeks were stained red, shakking her head quietly, looking him dead in his eyes. Simultaniously apologizing, wishing it didn't happen, and pretending it didn't. But it made him smile none the less, but smiling suddenly wasn't enough. The horrified look she had on her face due to some old sheets he had found when they arrived, made it too amusing for a mere smile, chuckle, chortle or giggle.

He laughed. For the first time in a long time, he was given the gift of a moment of laughter, not for sarcasam or snarks sake, but for the genuine innocent humor of the moment. Euphoria and dopomine washed over him, as he sank down to lie on his back, and let waves of pleasure wash over him, Audrey smiled at first, tucking a strand of hair nervously behind her ear, and wondering if when he stopped laughing he was going to hold her in silent contenpt for ruining his comforter. But then she lost all of her doubt, and all of her shame. Because he was laughing.

It was beautiful and deep, and you could tell he was one of those people who laughed from their soul, which was a bright and warm place to be. His hands clutched at his sides, and he closed his eyes, his smile reaching across the planes of his face, and awakening it in places she hadn't known were there before. When he opened his eyes, the glowing amber had somehow diminished, and it looked like there were spots of warm honey dark molossass coming through. His laughter died, but his smile remained, and his eyes closed again, as he chuckled a few more times.

Audrey bit her lip, and wondered if she dared go through with her thought. Her right hand poised over his face, she wondered if he could sense its presense, and was pretending that it wasn't there, hoping it would go away, or if he was oblivious to it, or if he was never able to sense it at all. These were the things she always ended up asking herself when it came to him. He let out a deep breath, and it rushed over her fingers giving them tingles with the chill tinge it possessed. She dropped her hand an inch, and her pointer finger brushed the top of his ear, which she noted looked perfectly human.

His eyes flew with panic to hers, and he turned, her finger now grazing his cheekbone. Her heart was going array, but the fact that he didn't immediately jerk away gave her confidence. She let her fingers travel lower, down his cheek, and under the lobe of his ear, she cupped his cheek. Edward sighed, he wanted this, he wanted it more then he would have ever been able to tell her, even if he sued the rest of her life, and his own. She was warm and living, kind and caring, beautiful and she was right here, ready.

His hand cupped hers, trying to tug it away from his face, as it was searing. But she wouldn't budge, her hand gripped him tighter, and she moved closer.

"Audrey." He said softly, and she stopped moving to look at him, "We can't."

He almost didn't get the words out through his shivers. Her forfingers was drawing circles on the nape of his neck, just inside his hair line, "Yes we can."

Edward could hear the sleep in her voice, as she moved closer, and suddenly he found his lower half being covereed in warmth, and he rolled away from her and took her hands firmly. They had both known that if he had wanted too he could stop her at any point, but the warmth made it hard to think of anything but her heart pumping out the hot blood. Now it had to stop.

"No, I can't." Her eyes dropped, to their hands, which were coming dangerously closer to touching, and she sighed turning her hand away from his, he instantly felt the lose, but he understood.

She turned her back on him, and he felt his immoveable heart breaking, but still he deserved it. He realized that it could seem like he had been playing with her, he never would have but things are often not seen for what they really are. Abruptly, the warmth returned, and he found AUdrey's back, and more shockingly her backside, pressed up against him. All of his nerve endings screamed, but he fought them down.

Justy when he thought he was safe, there she was putting them both in danger. He knew, even though he would never adnmit it, that he was lying to himself when he said that there was nothing he could do. There were a million things he could do, the least of which was simply get out of bed. But he knew that he wouldn't get out of bed, he knew that he also wouldn't move, Audrey turned and caught his wrist and brought it down around her side, and he bit back a moan.

_Who said a little danger ever hurt anyone anyway?_

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_**Yeah! So what did you think. Too much? Too little? Please tell me, I'm a complete work-in-progress (see what I did there). Thanks again forreading through, and you know what come after reading? Reviewing! I know it goes without saying, but for some reason I fell like some of you out there, keep forgetting the second part. But I love you all anyway :)**_

_**Please please please please please review! That was four more 'please's' then necessary, reward my efforts!**_


	10. Chapter 10

**Happy New Year! Another year has left us, oh where does the time go? It is insane to think that another year is gone, giving birth to itself again, so reincarnation exists on some level at least :) Think about it. But briefly. Here is chapter ten, I know long awaited, but hopefully highly anticipated, and even better loved chapter ten for all of you lovelies out there who like my stuff. Enjoy.**

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She was smiling at him again, she could feel it, his left eye was twitching, slightly, yet uncomfortably. Edward pulled at the skin surrounding the corner of his eyes taunt in a altogether hopeless effort to relax the spasmodic muscles there. Momentary relief gateway to more involuntary and aggravated pace of the twitching. He turned to look at her, but she quickly looked away, smiling and grasping his mothers necklace between her fingers. She had found it two days ago at the bottom of his bathroom rubbish bin. Presenting it to him had only brought all of the reasons he had thrown it away in the first place to the forefront of his mind. Like how he was the one to give it too her in the hospital, the hospital she had spent the last two years of her life in. The one that told he and Edward they would save her, they wouldn't let her die on them. How she hadn't been wearing it when she died, but clutching it, close to her suddenly still heart. He chocked trying to keep them from dragging him back into the dead and empty world he had lived in, in the years immediately after he had let Frankie get over his own grief. Something he wasn't particular proud of, but there it was. Literally, it was swinging lightly too and fro in front of his face, and just behind it were brown eyes staring at him with curiosity shining back at him.

He had attempted to shrug it off, pretending he didn't remember where the necklace had come from, or how it had come to be in his lavatory bin. But she let the necklace swing at her side, and fixed him with a withering look of disappointing. Not wasting a moment she grabbed at his wrist, pulling him along behind her. Stopping outside of the room that had once belonged to him in his childhood, and then Audrey, before she had begun to sneak into his room each night to sleep there. Standing in front of the wall and looking up at him.

Edward's mother was staring at him. It was one of his favorites of her. She had a small quiet smile on her face. Eyes open and bright with the innate curiosity that had diminished later in her life, sitting crossed legged on the ground and looking like she had never been happier in her entire life. He chose to forget it was his father taking the picture, it had been him who made her look like that. This picture was exactly how he preferred to remember her. Healthy, glowing, and happy.

He took in why it was that Audrey had brought him here, around her neck and tangled in her long, tan fingers, the necklace. Blue, white, black and red. Beads and coloured stone, all strung in a pattern you noticed, but couldn't precisely place.

It had taken some convincing, but finally she had agreed to keep it. As of now he didn't think she had even taken it off. He smiling at it now, and hooked a finger around the chain, pulling on it lightly, and Audrey found that she was twisting her neck letting the warm part glide easily off and bringing a chilled area to the nape of her neck. They were staring at one another, and Ed gently tugged at the chain bringing her closer to him. Obliging him, she moved her entire chair around to his side and suddenly her knee was brushing the inside of his thigh and Edward had the good sense to end their game. Dropping the necklace and her gaze, rubbing at his eyes only to give himself something else to do but dwell on the fact that again he couldn't do anything about the ideas in his head.

He felt Audrey's fingers at the tips of his hair, which was almost reaching his shoulders now, and he moved his hands away from his face looking at her again, finding her staring at her fingers instead of at him. Which he found a blessing because his eyes were closing as he tried with a certain desperation he would never admit too, to try and get his head to stop spinning, because it was making it terribly difficult to breathe. he was too close. Her fingers were inching closer to his scalp and he knew it should stop, but it wasn't until the first nail scraped just behind his ear that he pulled back, her hand made to follow him, but he covered her wrist with his hand stopping it.

He held it there for a moment, stuck if he left it go as he should she would only go for it again, and if she got a hold of him, it would certainly be the last time she ever had to. He would be hers that would be the end of it. But if he held her hand in his, it would change things, it would make holding her hand a memory in his mind, the feeling of it grasped however lightly there would be forever with him, and to try and keep himself from doing it again, might just kill him completely. Audrey wasn't content to sit there, but the look on his face told her to hold still, and she couldn't bring herself to go against something that seemed so important to him. Finally he looked at her hand for what felt like the first time, bringing his eyebrows together on his face and turning her hand over, her palm face up. Carefully he covered it with his own, and she sighed, he was holding it between both of his and brought it rest on his knee. He had been right, even with only one hand covering it, you could hardly tell her hand was there at all.

For moments they didn't say anything, or couldn't, never knowing how many moments was both a blessing and a curse. But eventually he looked up at her, tiling his head in her direction, and smiling as he felt his hair brushing over the tops of his shoulders, "Do you know how to cut hair?" Her grin was wicked and he was begging that the only thing wicked that would happen was the smile.

"A couple more days and I was going to strap you to a chair myself," The thumb that had been drawing circles froze, and every muscle in his body tightened as he looked at her, Audrey's jaw dropped and she stammered incoherently for a few moments, before her mouth remembered she had a brain that knew words that could help her here, "Haircut...I was going to make you get a haircut...that was all."

She smiled at him carefully, and took her hand from his, her face suddenly warmer than she thought it should be, and judging by the look on his face, he knew it. They both stood sudden;y backing away from the other, Audrey's hand grabbed for the necklace and Edward found his hands deep in his pockets.

"Can you?" He asked, ducking his chin to his chest as his voice sudden;y rose several crucial octaves.

"I can give it a shot, that's about as good as you'll get out here." She gave him a rueful smile which he managed to return for a bare moment.

Samuel rounded the corner, taking in the two adults whose gazes shot to him abruptly. He stood wide-eyed and prone, darting his eyes from one pair of eyes to the other, his shoulders relaxing and he let a brief but genuine smile dominate his face. He had grown since they came here, it had been three months ago and already they had relocated over a dozen groups to safe houses. It turns out Elvis could be charming and trustworthy, when he put his mind to it. They trusted him. People were eve beginning to sleep when they had to over night it. sleeping in shifts. But everyone got at least an hour, and this was certainly better than huddled in a corner. A big step in the right direction, at least that was what Audrey assumed him of. Samuel was threatening to overtake Audrey's ears, and from there it was inches until he would be taller than her, a fact she tried to ignore with vigor.

"Hungry?" Audrey asked him brightly, and he nodded looking to Ed. They all knew that he was the one who could cook, but as of late Audrey had been trying to cook more, because she hated seeing him do it, feeling as though all it was accomplishing besides providing sustenance was to add insult to her perpetually salted injuries.

Ed smiled at him and backed towards the fridge, "Grilled cheese?" He questioned, already reaching for the ingredients and Samuel nodded walking towards him smiling. He loved Edward's grilled cheese, no American cheese by product, and no butter, his mother's recipe, one of everyone's favorites. Audrey took up the take of setting the table, watching as Edward whispered the recipe to Sam, making a show of keeping it a secret from Audrey, telling Samuel that he could only tell one person in the whole world and he wanted it to be he who carried on the tradition. She never saw him smile as much as he did when they were making it.

"Tonight?" She asked, gripping the plates extra tight, because he was looking at her again, and warmth was spreading through her at the thought of it.

"Tonight."

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It was nearing ten thirty when the plan finally got underway. It seemed that Samuel had to be put to bed before they could start, because Audrey didn't want to leave him unsupervised while they did it, and she wanted all of her attention focused on Edward, to keep from cutting it badly, or injuring either of them in the process.

Edward ran a towel through his hair, which he had only just finished dampening in the sink, turning to find Audrey with her back to him, looking over the small barbers kit spread over the counter, the one she had found it amongst his mothers things earlier, when he mention that he remembered her having one. She ran her fingers lightly over them, the clippers, comb and two pairs of scissors, smiling lightly.

"What?" He asked from behind her, her amusement palpable.

Turning in surprise, she shook her head, and looked at the tools, "I tried to cut my sisters hair once, when we were kids."

"How did it end?"

"Horribly." She admitted, and they both grinned.

"Excellent." He said, walking closer to her, and straddling the chair that she had set there. They had agreed that it should be done in the bathroom, because the tile would make it simpler to clean up when she had finished. He ran a hand through his hair, which admittedly wasn't looking its best.

Audrey took the towel from him, as he let his forehead rest on what was the back support of his mothers kitchen chair, her head was shaking lightly as she survey the length of his hair, and ran her fingers lightly over the still damp towel, "Take off your shirt." She said suddenly, her voice rising with her haste to say these words to him, before she lost her ever growing nerve, one that she was sure at any moment would shrink back to it's previous size.

His head rose slowly, and she knew he was looking at her in the reflection of the mirror, but all she saw was a floating button down through the slats of the chairs back. He was shaking his head, she could see it in her puerperal vision, just the top of his head, moving, and there the collar of the empty shirt was moving and crumpling, and then his voice, "Audrey..." He started carefully, wondering if he would honestly have to explain why it would be a very bad idea.

"Unless you want you hair all over your neck, and a wet shirt on your back." She said simply, and looking down at him, because the shirt had turned around to face her, his eyes startled her, she had known that he would be there when she looked down, but the sight of him not there and then suddenly there was unnerving. He was looking between her and the towel, surveying the options, "I'm going to put the towel over you to keep from getting hair on your neck, it will be itchy if I don't," She explained further, "But it's wet and it will make your shirt wet."

Audrey tried not look look up at the other towels that were hanging on the rack to their left, because that would make more sense, or at the dresser in his bedroom the their right, which held plenty more shirts that she was sure he wouldn't mind to get wet, which also made more sense. But it was he who turned to look at the towels, and she let her eyes fall now that he wasn't looking at her anymore, dropping his head for a moment, he looked at the dresser as well, and she felt as though he had read her mind, as he did. But he looked back a the mirror again, and her skin stung with white hot fire, as he was watching her again. Looking up she saw the shirt moving again, carefully but efficiently manipulating the buttons, and pulling it off his shoulders. For a moment they were both staring at nothing.

She dropped the towel on what moments before had been seemingly open air and watched as it shaped into the rough form of a person. Adjusting it properly to lie flat across his shoulders, and looking down to make sure his neck was covered. She might at least keep her reasons legitimate. Moving to grab the comb and scissors and returning to his side. He wasn't breathing anymore, she could hear him and the towel wasn't moving, but she couldn't understand why. Carefully she took a small patch in her fingers, with the intent of running it through the comb and gauging its length. But she found her fingers pulling to the end and returning got more. Her chest ached as she pulled out another clump of damp hair and bit down on her lip as Edward let out a rush of air.

He should stand and leave. It would be the safest most logical choice, but seeming to sense his thoughts she brought the scissors forward and snipped off a part. The first of many snips, but it was enough to keep him in the chair. She looked up at the mirror starting at the sight of her hands in front of her. It was so strange, she had seen the towel through what should have been solid body, but it took seeing her own hands, which she knew to be holding hair, attached to the back of a head, but she saw none of those things. Just her hands and scissors and comb.

Looking back down at the top of her head, she pushed it forward further, his chin nearing his chest, and she kept herself from looking back at the mirror, reminding herself on more than one occasion that he was a person, and he wasn't something to be gawked at. She kept a good pace with the scissors, shortening it enough until she could go at it with the clippers, keeping it short at the back an sides, she came around him in the front. Having left this for last, hoping that she could have as much control when she got to this part. She thought of military haircuts left unattended while she cut, trying her best to keep his hair looking this way, because it looked good and it seemed simple to do. Her eyes were straying towards his face, he was staring at her stomach, actually he was trying to look everywhere but her stomach without moving his head, though it didn't seem to be working. Her eyes returned to the top of his head, because she caught sight of his chest, and abruptly it seemed they both realized how quiet it was in the house, and how very much alone they actually were.

She brought the scissors back up and smoothed out the lines she had made while moving the long strands about, and clipped at it briefly, but his breath was hitting her stomach, and her heart was hammering inside of her, so quickly that Edward felt as though it threatened to bring her own heart back to life. But it didn't, nothing could. Sure Elvis had told him about how he had been turned back, but it was too risky, the winery might have been a good place to conduct such a trial run, but there wasn't a place here, not somewhere that was safe, where nothing could go wrong. With him or with Audrey. There was no telling what prolonged sun exposure could do to his state of mind, it might drive him to do something about the smell of her blood, and he would risk it. Plus it could kill him, there might have been something about the suns distance from their Earth on that day, or the water that he fell into, or hell maybe Elvis had something about him that let him cross back over. There was no telling, and until then, this was something he would just have to live with.

The last snip came from above him, and Audrey back away from him, setting down the comb and scissors, and unplugging the clippers, moving back to him she ran her fingers lightly over his hair, shaking loose any remaining hairs, and checking that all it's length was as even as she could get it. Her fingers were moving and massaging over his head, her nails scraping accidentally across his scalp and leaving fire everywhere she touched.

"Well?" He asked roughly, and she started, her fingers tensing suddenly as she realized that neither of them had spoken since the start of his haircut, and she looked up at his clock, that had been almost an hour ago, "Better than your sisters hair I hope." He joked lightly.

She smiled at him, and admitted that it did look pretty good, and wished she could offer for him to take a look himself. Audrey reached for the towel carefully folding it, with his hair inside, walking to the shower to shake it out and rinse it down the drain. He was leaning forward and opening the counter under the sink, pulling out what looked like a hand mirror, and holding it up to look in it. Dropping the towel, and following her curiousness to stand next to him. She saw it wasn't a hand mirror but a video screen, and a small camera with a handle. It looked like infrared, but there was his face. Her back straightened, and he turned from side to side, brushing stray hairs off his ears, and then from his shoulders.

She tried to stop her eyes there because she could just see the top of his collar bone, it was grainy but it was there, his neck was tensing as his head turned to look at the hair cut she had given him, the longer she looked the more difficult it seemed to look away, but he was turning to look at her, and she tried with desperation to stop. But his arm dropped a fraction, and she looked at his chest full on, and blushed furiously at herself, because now she couldn't, and she didn't want to look away, and her face was stinging as he looked over at her.

"It looks good." He said, his voice choked, and she watched it move in the mirror.

Her eyes finally looked up at him, and found him very close, he was staring at her, his eyes glowing brightly with something she knew all to well. Her breath was coming, but with difficulty, and then he wasn't so close, he was leaning to get his shirt from the floor, and it seemed like it was colder next to her now then it had been a moment ago. He was spreading the fabric in his fingers, searching for the elusive sleeve. When she was at his side, and her hands were on his, she was trying to think, or not think. She couldn't remember which she had decided to be, but given what she wanted to do, she thought not think sounded more plausible.

Edward opened his mouth, as her fingers were skimming their way up his chest, "Audrey." He said, but seemed as thought he couldn't bring himself to move away from her. He had been right, and this time he wasn't happy about it, she had reached for him once more, and he couldn't pull away. He admitted it. He was hers. Completely, and it was hard to be angry with himself about it.

Her fingers reached his neck, and for the first time she allowed herself to look at his scar, the palest thing about him, the only part of him that seemed vulnerable, and in light of what she wanted to do, looking at his scar paled in comparison. Her fingers traced the pattern of the bite, the raised edges of his brothers teeth, the largest and deepest of these were his canines, the teeth that had elongated into fangs. Moving past this she wrapped her fingers around his neck, and Edward tensed, knowing what was coming next, and again finding it hard to be angry with himself about letting his happen.

Audrey took a deep breath, hoping do find that courage instead of oxygen, she didn't, but still she pressed onward. Moving to his face, his eyes locking with hers, and then closing in his own silent surrender to her, and she smiled. Her lips brushing his cheek, and only the corner of his mouth. Fire and ice spread through each, burning and freezing all at the same moment, and all at the same place. She was so close to him, he felt he might burn, and his hand was holding her waist as she threatened to freeze.

Then she was gone. While it happened it seemed like a lifetime, as she left he realized the reality of how short it had been. He turned and found that he had dropped his shirt, and that Audrey hadn't really left. She was standing beside his bed, but looking at the door, torn. He shut off the light and left the bathroom, moving to stand at her side, but he didn't touch her, he couldn't, he still lived in the state of belonging to her. Slowly he pulled back the comforter and covers, and then left her standing there. Rounding on the other side of the bed, and climbing, not daring to look at her properly, as he was still entirely too warm.

He heard her moving, coming to lie in his bed, pulling the comforter over her, and letting out the breath she had taken in the bathroom.

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**So that's it. I was stuck on the ending, and to me it felt kind of vague, but I didn't know how to end it, I tried lots of things, but none felt right. Anyhoo I hope that I will see all of your familiar pen names, and hopefully new ones in my email tomorrow. Because I love you all, and I won't even bother to promise to update, because I can't bear the thought of breaking another promise to all of you lovelies again. So I promise to feel terrible about not updating, at least I can keep that one. Or I could last year. Now that I'm done wallowing, please feel ever free to review this hopefully wonderfull chapter.**


	11. Chapter 11

**So I want to say I'm so sorry, but I have broken yet another promise to you guys. I cannot sit and wallow in sadness about not updating, because I've done it! It came to me last night in a dream, ridiculous I know, but 100% true literally. Well, OK, not literally, there were a lot more sexy times that I didn't feel right putting in here for the place that Audrey and Edward are both at. But don't fret, I've filed them away, and when the time is right, I might just be inclined to pull them out. Yes I do intent for something to happen between them, something better then what I've been giving you as of late, because I fell if I wait too much longer, I'll have a mutiny on my hands. Anyway, please enjoy this holiday season treat, and hope that I will have lots more dreams.**

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Edward had listened intently as Audrey drifted that night, almost instantly off to sleep. Her breathing had quickly slowed, to the low and even pace of sleep, while her heart was faster than her usual sleeping pace he set it aide lightly, deciding it couldn't be all that abnormal. He rolled gently out of bed, as he listened to her breath slip one more time, into the deep unconscious sleep, so as not to wake her. He looked at her briefly, but as she had shifted onto her back, and her shirt was rising up. Ignoring the heat that was flaring on his cheek and the corner of his lip, he backed out of the room. Taking his first real breath since he had started to unbutton his shirt.

Every nerve had been on high alert since they decided he would need a haircut, and it hadn't helped that she had all of the sudden screamed at him to take his shirt off. His first instinct had been to oblige her, as was the norm where Audrey was concerned, but he had paused, taken a moment to weigh the options. He had tried to say something to her, but he didn't know what, and then she was explain something to him, something about wet towels, and itchy necks, but it was all fuzz in his ears.

He had seen the towels out of the corner of his eye, and stared at them briefly, he could get a different towel problem solved, he looked at his hands, and tried to convince himself that he should just get a new towel, when he thought about his shirts, sitting folded neatly in the other room, just waiting for him to go and get one and put it on. It wasn't even like he couldn't get the shirt he was wearing wet. His eyes were darting all around, and he knew he couldn't have looked more panicked if he tried, and for once he was glad his reflection, or lack there of, would give her nothing, but he still knew that she was looking at him, and he looked up to meet her eye. Her brown eyes were steadily getting darker, and her lids were drooping. His stomach was plummeting, and suddenly he could't take the heat any more, the first button seemed to fight him, like it was telling him this was a bad plan, and couldn't end in a good place. But he fought it out of its hole, and the rest were a breeze, soon he was pulling it off of his shoulders, and Audrey was staring at him.

Or at least staring at the spot where she knew him to be. The fascination that she could no longer see where he was in the mirror, was evident on her face, and he didn't even have to keep from smiling, because she couldn't seem him, he liked the feeling swelling inside of him, the feeling that she was in awe of him. His pride stroked his ego accordingly, and as the towel dropped unceremoniously onto his back, his head was feeling a great deal bigger then it had a few minutes ago.

She was gone from his side, and back in a moment, carrying in her hands a comb and scissors, and she was looking at his head, surveying him. He could see her in the reflection, but he could see her, she was reaching for air, and that was the last thing he managed to see. Because his eyes were closing of their own volition, and his body was reacting violently to her soft tug on his damp hair. It felt like he was being ripped in two, the human, red blooded male side of him was whispering in his ear all kinds of things his mother would whip him for if only she knew, and the vampiric side of him was whispering in his other ear about all other kinds of things that he was ashamed to admit he wasn't sure he wanted to push from him mind. Her fingers were carefully tugging, and in the end he was sure that the human side of him won out, because all he wanted to do was pull away from her. He needed to stand and leave, this would be the right and chivalrous thing to do. He was staring at her, as her face was dropping all pretense, and slowly revealing a look of intense...something else that his vamperic side was quick to latch onto. He let out a rush of air, and was tensing his muscles, preparing them for his weight, when her face looked panicked and he stilled for one crucial moment.

Her hands were gone quick as a flash, and in their place a comb and the ends of scissors meeting its twin, snipping the first clump of his hair. She looked up at him in the mirror, traces of a triumphant smile, he wasn't sure that she even knew was there, before her expression dropped abruptly off, she was staring at her own hands, and for a moment he wondered why this was a phenomenon, and then it clicked. She was staring at her hands through his head. He wanted to say something to her, tell her that it was alright. But she was pushing his head down, and there was more fuzz in his ears, and his entire head was on fire. Edward clenched his eyes tightly closed and tried to block out all feeling, and thought, and basic functions, he even stopped breathing. He was dimly aware of the clippers cutting and tugging at the back and sides of his head, she was moving steadily along, every movement she made like fire. When she moved to cut the front of his hair, he had thought he might die, her stomach was inches from his face, and his fangs were pushing into his gums painfully, he let out a deep breath and he could hear her heart slamming inside of him, as if it were his own.

He set about distracting himself, but ended up thinking about the experiments that Elvis had been trying to get going, and it only put him in a further place of pain, because he knew at least for the near future, he could never have a beating heart. She was setting aside the scissors, and taking the clippers from the wall, she ran her hands through his hair lightly, letting his nails scrape over his scalp, and he wanted to cry out, but bit back on the urge, a touch more literally than he had initially intended, but there it was.

Edward sat on the couches of the sunken living room, and sighed, his face had kept a steady burn, like the lasting embers of a fire, not as hot as the initial flame, but still to unbearably heated to think about. His face was screaming, and the fuzz was only now beginning to clear out of his head, soft footsteps were headed in his direction, and he stilled, in the middle of rubbing a hand over his face. He closed his eyes and wished he could shrink back into the walls, but the feet were too close, and there was nowhere to go where she wouldn't see him. There were small breaths being taken, and he carefully opened his eyes, and tilted his head in surprise as Samuel was standing in the doorway, his hands in the pockets of his pajama bottoms.

"Hey little man." Edward called to him softly, he seemed to visibly relax at the sound of Edward's voice, and he moved further into the room, to stand in front of him, and tilting his head, considering him.

For a long moment Edward just let him look, taking in all that he wanted to. It was learned skill, because after everything that had happened to him, the only thing remotely human he found he had left, was his mind, his ability to form and articulate words, his blood was gone, his heart was still, and he could never see the sun again. It made him want to fill the silence with the one thing he had left, but here was a boy who had had this thing taken from him. He couldn't wrap his head around it, and as much as he had felt sorry for himself, he somehow felt more sorry for this little boy. Yet another thing that the natural desire to live forever, and the unnatural application had taken from people. It had taken Edward's life, but it had taken Samuel's voice, and that seemed worse somehow.

After a long moment Samuel reached out, and ran his fingers over Edward's head, and he smiled, seeing now the novelty, he had never seen Edward with hair any reasonable length. But soon he dropped his hand, and Edward moved to the left, opening up the side of the couch to him, and Samuel smiled, sitting next to him. For a moment he seemed unsure, but then he decided, and curled into Edward's side. He let out a rush, at the warmth the child provided, and then smiled, leaning back and letting his head rest against the back of the couch, fingering his own short, crisp hairs.

He had never before considered himself to be a particularly lucky guy. His father had abandoned him, and his family, his mother had died before he even really got to know her, his aunt had been a good caretaker, but a lousy replacement for a mother, his brother had never grown up right, all of the things that Edward couldn't stand about his life, he saw tearing Frankie apart at the seams, and it had become Edward's job to hold him together. The very thing that had taken his mother soon became the reality of his brother, and a reality that had forced itself upon Edward. Everything in his life had seemed like it could only be one thing after the other, never letting up, never taking a holiday. But as he looked around his home, he realized something. He had it. He had the things that he wanted. He had a beautiful woman asleep in his bed, in his house, he had a young boy asleep at his side. He had people in his life, who cared about him, who would do all of the things for him, which families are supposed to do. He had Elvis, he didn't know quite where he fit into things, but he knew he was there, all of the things he had pined after were his. He let out a laugh, quickly silenced, but Samuel at his side, stirring briefly and then relaxing.

How could he have not realized it before, there it was staring him in the face.

"Edward." He froze and chanced a glance at Samuel, but his face was passive, and unconscious, looking up, Audrey was watching him, her arms crossed over herself, in an attempt to adjust to the colder air, now that she had left the cocoon of his bed.

"Hey." He called quietly, flinching as Samuel murmured a hum in his sleep, and Audrey stepped down the two stairs, and was sitting at his side, in her presence his face caught fire again, and he wished to squirm uncomfortably at its feeling, but Samuel sleeping peacefully at his side, kept him rooted to the spot. She was watching Samuel and smiling to herself, and then she was smiling at him, and his face was warming further, and his back was beginning to tingle, and he wanted desperately to bow away from it, but he didn't. Her hand touched his arm, and the tingling intensified, but then it died off quickly, as her hand soothed him. Audrey was looking at the boy curling further into him again and sighing softly in his sleep, and grinned.

"Do I get a comfy pillow too?" She was joking, but he was trying not to choke, he had been hoping she would ask this, and begging that she wouldn't. He hated the constant warfare going on inside of him. His brain and his heart were squaring off and each of his organs were taking sides, he had a feeling this battle would be anything but civil.

Her shoulder was touching his, and he was melting, he wanted to remain impassive, and be the strong man he knew he had once been. But the same feeling as he had had in the bathroom came over him now. He felt helpless, but completely capable, she had complete control of him, but it was his decision to relinquish it. Again at war. Slowly she tucked her shoulder under his, and paused looking at him, waiting for further signal from him. He could see his corneas reflected in her eyes, as she stared up at him, and he relaxed his arm, letting her slide further into him, his arm was curling around her, and her head was at his neck. They both let out rushed air, and and Edward felt himself relax.

She was nuzzling the side of his neck, briefly, because he stiffened. Smiling into his shirt, one she hadn't known he had put on, baby steps, she thought. Reveling in the idea that she was this close to him. In the fact that she had kissed him, and that he had let her. Not long after, he heard Audrey drift back off, and he let his chin rest on top of hers. Ignoring his idle thoughts and listening to their peaceful breathing. When one thought flitting past his mind caught his attention fully.

He was warm.

Two healthy, living, warm bodies were curled into his, covering every part of him. He wanted to laugh, sing, cry, and dance, all in one fluid motion, all at the same time, but he didn't. His bones were slowly defrosting, and he couldn't move because to move would remove this delicious warmth from him, and the mere thought of throwing away such a precious gift, after ten years of pining for it, was too much to bear. This was the thought that would circulate until Samuel would stir in the early hours.

He was warm.

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**Aw! Sometimes my subconscious is so sweet I can hardly stand it. Anyone else? I just rewatched the movie yesterday, and reread all of my other chapters today, and I was noticing that Edward was just wanting to be warm, and it was tragic to think that I kept teasing him, however unintentional it may have been, with the small bursts of warmth here and there. Also I could believe that I had an idea this close after I posted, well an idea that was relevent. In addition to this idea...idea?...dream?...who cares it's mine! In addition to this little lovely, I have several other in the queue, more stuff pertaining to the resistance mostly, but as always centered around Ed and Audrey.**

**Don't forget to review when you're finished reading, even just for a moment, even just a word, if I get ten reviews I will post within seven days. Given I don't die, fall ill, or anyone important to me doesn't die or fall ill. That is a promise I will keep. Remember ten reviews and you will get a chapter. Fifteen? And who knows, and kiss perhaps? It all lies in your capable hands people.**

**Remember 1.10.12 -(That is seven days from today in case anyone was confounded :])**


	12. Chapter 12

_**Hello dearies! How have the weeks been? The few weeks might I add, it is only Febuary and I have updated three times! Who is proud of me? I know I couldn't possibly be more thrilled if I had a birth certificate making me of legal age, the Kama Sutra and Richard Armitage all to myself. (sigh dreamily). Anywhoo! Ignore my fantasies or help me make them reality :) Or just read and review because that is also a fantasy, one that seems a touch more realistic if you ask me, but don't let that discourage you from the whole Richard thing.**_

_**:)**_

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Edward ran his hands unnerved through his hair, smiling. He wasn't entirely used to the length, or lack there of, just yet. It was a strange sensation accompanied by memories he would never rid himself of, and he wasn't sure he wanted to, every time his fingers slipped and slid right off the back of his head. He couldn't help but think of Audrey's fingers as they massaged his head, for nearly forty-five solid minutes, pulling and prodding and checking lengths. He was only happy there was hardly any blood in him at all, or he thought embarrassment would have no doubt ensued. Then her lips on him. It had almost been more than he could handle. The fire that burned eternally in his stomach. He wasn't sure how, but whenever he thought about that moment, when her lips had taken pity on him, he got warm. Not all over, just the spot her lips had touched. It was like her had brought oxidized blood, and life back to that spot, if for only a moment.

She was sitting in the kitchen with Elvis, pouring over some old military files he had managed to nick out of some vamps car while a squad of people lured him away. They had been doing a lot of that recently. Snooping and planning, and scheming, plans and files out of the hands of their enemies. Ed had to admit he was impressed with the way that Elvis had handled himself stepping into his new role, he hadn't been entirely sure he could do it, no one had, least of all Elvis. But everyone had been pleasantly surprised when he had flourished in his role as a liaison. They had attempted it before the relocation, but it had been on a small scale at best, though since the incident at the winery, Elvis had been hell bent on discovering what that rogue had been doing all the way out there, and how he had maintained an ounce of control. So far removed from blood, and with all that fresh sustenance.

He had been quizzing Edward for weeks on all he could remember about Donovan. Most things had been trivial, skin tone, hair color, eye color, what he had been drinking, his swear word of choice. Ed remembered meeting him at a bar with Frankie, an old family Irish pub, circa 1900's, been in the family for generations, and a whole lot of other random facts from the owners son, another army buddy spouted at them, in a drunken slur. He also remembered a liberal amount of alcohol ending up in a glass he supposed was his, before the memories grew steadily less vivid, and a touch less coherent, and eventually just ended. The next thing was a blaring alarm clock that he remembered shouting curses of every kind and wishing death by candle wax and bath water upon its alarm clock brothers and sisters, friends and family, and a particularly violent end to any wrist watches it happened to be fond of. Before it crashed against the far wall and ceased to annoy.

"But that was over ten years ago, almost ten months before I got turned," This was what Edward would eventually and inevitably circle back too, "Anything could have happened since then, Donovan might have been promoted or demoted, or changed platoons. Got a different job, and his name isn't even unusual, it might not even be him."

This was another thing that plagued him, just one more thing he had to add to the ever lengthening list of things he couldn't seem to get out of his head. What if it hadn't been him? He hadn't displayed any physical characteristics that would suggest it had been the man he had met already half pissed, his hair was gone, his eyes had changed, his skin, like all other rogues, was sallow and pale, and threatening to hang off of him and swallow him whole in the same moment. Also there were the wings and talons he was pretty sure he wouldn't have been able underneath the barroom table.

Elvis scoffed at his protest against trying to find more information, and spun his coffee mug around in a small circle, alternately running his fingers around the rim lazily, and gripping it so tightly that Edward thought it might shatter. Audrey had insisted that if he were to become liaison he would have to quit drinking, much to his own dismay, he didn't have to like it to agree with it. But he had done it. Quitting cold turkey hadn't been ideal, or easy by any means, but they didn't exactly have the luxury of time on their side, and it would take weeks to wean his body off of it, and have him back in top condition, he had fought hard with himself, and his symptoms of withdrawal and come out on top.

"Yeah, but anything you tell us might help, because it's more than we have right now, which is jack shit." He took a large slug of his coffee and fingered absently his pack of cigarettes. Audrey had also wanted him to quit smoking, because she realized she needed him around, she couldn't it without him, but he had given her a withering look, reminding Edward very much of Audrey's own, and she let it alone. He had already quit drinking for her, asking him to stop this too was altogether unfair. Little did he know she had plans to get him top quit smoking too, just as soon as she thought he was strong enough.

"Alright," Edward caved, because she was looking at him with her big brown eyes, and her eyebrows pulled together in concern. He was steadily beginning to realize all of the people she was responsible for, he had always known intellectually what it was she had resting on her shoulders, but it wasn't until two weeks ago, when Elvis had brought pictures of all of the successful relocation at all of their safe houses, he realized how many of them there were. It must be well over one hundred at this point, and Edward shivered because as amazing as it was, seeing so many humans, it was hard to consider that this might be all their is left.

He closed his eyes against the people around him, and shut out the noises, resting his elbows on the table and steepling his fingers, he tried to remember. He thought back to that night, blocking out Frankie and his other Army buddies. Donovan had been sitting across from him, stewing quietly to himself, like the answer to all life in the universe was located in the bottom of his own drink, and the rest of the world was woefully unimportant at that point. His eyes were bloodshot, and there was a obvious droop to his shoulders that was consistent with a boy who had seen too much of what only men should see, and he felt for him. Abruptly, he was looking up, staring at Frankie with rapt attention, wide-eyed, and shaky. Edward tried to zone back into the conversation, trying desperately to hear Frank, even though he was sitting directly to his left, the noises of the bar were drowning out his voice.

Snatches of words reached his ears, his human memory not withstanding the strain he had been placing upon that particular memory and it finally snapped beneath the pressure it felt. It was gone, somewhere that he would never be able to find again, it went away to a place in his head where memories went to die a small quiet death amongst relatives. The last thing he saw was Donovan, his expression a dizzying circle of horror, panic, and paranoia, gently shaking his head back and forth. Whether disputing what Frankie was saying, or trying to signal him discretely to stop talking Edward couldn't be sure. But accompanying his last visual memory was an auditory snatch. A fragment of a sentence.

"Gemini," Edward said suddenly, looking around him mildly surprised that he was staring into the face of Elvis and Audrey, and the smoky fish-eyed memory of the barroom had dissipated, "The Gemini Project." He clarified, swallowing, and trying to grab at the last moment of that memory, but it too was gone to join its brethren.

Elvis was looking hard at Audrey, the sudden return of Edward's senses was startling. His face had been blank for the better part of ten minutes, rubbing his hands, in some kind of unconscious soothing gesture, but there he was staring up at them, and saying something that sounded vaguely familiar to him, he searched his brain, while simultaneously searching the stacks of paper in front of him trying to place with name with a file.

"Shut that off will you." Elvis said softly, and heard Audrey rise, moving to the sunken living room, where the TV was on and playing on a low level. Apparently not everything left you when you went back to being a human, Elvis often complained about noises Edward chose to ignore, and Audrey explained she didn't hear at all, and the television had been driving him mad since Elvis had gotten there and turned it on, "We need to talk." He said quickly, and Edward swiveled around from watching Audrey leave to looking at Elvis, who he thought for sure would have been grinning at him, but he just set his features hard.

"What?" He asked, realizing that the last few seconds had been entirely visual for him, and not auditory.

Elvis rolled his eyes at Edward and let out a sigh, he could hear Audrey coming back around the corner, "You and I need to talk, without Audrey."

Edward sat back, and furrowed his brow, while Elvis sat back and smiled absently at Audrey, shuffling papers back into their proper places, placing them back in boxes, he was glancing around him, and nodded to Edward, who nodded back in a casual way. Audrey wasn't watching the exchange, she was too busy putting papers back together, and turning them the right way round, before handing them over to Elvis, who had a vastly larger understanding of the filing system. The sun had set over the hills behind the house, and night was now fully upon them, Elvis was looking out the high window with the window tint that he had invented, which blocked out 98% of all UV rays, leaving it harmless enough by the time it reached your skin that it could harder do more than irritate you. It had been that, or board up the windows on his mothers house for good, he would take the itchy skin.

Audrey was looking at Edward, and smiling. She knew it took a lot out of him to think of his human life, and think of his brother, but he had been more than willing and more than helpful in every aspect that they asked him to. Everyone was appreciative of what he was doing for them, especially her, she reached out her hand and held his wrist for a moment, and he smiled back at her. He understood what she was doing, she was the kind person that expressed gratitude through physical touch, at least she did with him, and he couldn't say he was altogether opposed. Elvis watched the moment unfold, and felt both elated and crushed in the same moment, it wasn't fair that this should happen to either of them. But he was confident that Edward wouldn't let himself hurt Audrey or Samuel.

"I think you and me need to have a talk." He was looking at Edward, and then pointedly at Audrey's hand cover his wrist, her thumb moving slowly over the beginning of his palm. Trying to sound protective over Audrey as she dropped her hand back to her side, but the look on Edward's face said he knew what Elvis was doing.

He chanced a glance at Audrey, and she looked pityingly at Edward, but Elvis was standing and moving for the front door to his mother's wrap around porch. The one Edward's father had built, cringing internally at the memory, Edward stood, Audrey close behind him.

Her hand was tightening over his wrist, and he stopped walking to turn at look at her, "Whatever he says about us, don't make a decision before you talk to me." The words were tinged with desperation, she had come so far with him, made so much progress, the thought of all of that having to go away was heart breaking.

"What?" The screen door was closing, and Edward was looking at her, trying not to over think what she was saying to him.

"Promise me, no matter what Elvis says, about chivalry or right and wrong, promise me you won't shut me out." Her voice was threatening to break, and he was looking at her like she was the only person in the world. Her hand hand had been skimming up the side of his arm, he felt it was it ran over his elbow and his shoulder, she wasn't looking at his face because she thought she might lose her nerve if she saw his reaction. She hadn't known what she intended to do when she moved her hands upwards, but her hands were cupping his face, her right thumb dragging its way over the spot where she had kissed him. It had been twitching incessantly since that night, and it had been driving her crazy, his skin had been so chilled that now every time she felt a draft she got entirely too warm, in all the right places.

His eyes closed abruptly and he was sucking in air like he might never get it again, he could feel it rushing past her finger which had stopped moving and held its position at the corner of his mouth. Everything was threatening to shut down, save for his heart, which was so charged he thought it might beat. She was stepping closer to him and Edward opened his eyes in a panic, this was in no way as close as they had ever been, he had twice before pinned her to him, but for some reason standing with only her hand touching him it felt more intimate. Her other hand was reaching for his neck, and his brain was sluggish, she was pulling him down towards her, when his hands found her waist. Stilling her movements. She was staring at him, and her nails were scraping at his neck, just past his hairline, feather light and deliciously teasing. Dropping his neck, his forehead touched hers, he shook it lightly. He could see it in her face, even if he promised her, she didn't believe he would talk to her about it, she was practically exuding it from her very skin. She thought this was her last chance. As much as he had wished for this moment, with all of his heart, in that moment, in that way. Like it might be the last time they would ever be able to, he didn't want it.

"Not like this." His voice was so light, she almost didn't hear it, and for a moment she considered pretending that she hadn't, but the words did reach her, and she only blinked in response. Her face was passive but still he searched it with intent, desperate for some answers there.

"Promise me." The pressure hadn't changed, but now the fact that her nails were dragging over his skin and sending violent icicles stabbing down his vertebrae was dominating his mind, and everything else was starting to fall away.

His hands covered hers and curled over her fingers bringing them to a halt on his skin, his mind was swaying back into his control but her breath was still warming is face, and her pulse was thrumming against his skin, "I promise."

Audrey looked heartbroken, and it was killing him all over again, she had wanted to hear it and now she had it she realized even more that it was only words, but she lifted her forehead from his and nodded, "Okay." Audrey gave his hands one last squeeze before stepping back from him entirely, biting her lip and looking away from him in thought, and for the barest of moment Edward was ready to cave, give into himself because he knew that he could, and she would let him. Now Elvis was back at the screen door and staring at the two of them, and he was thankful they had stepped away from each other when they had, he didn't say anything, just looked for a long moment and then walked out of sight again. Edward looked behind him, and was staring into her eyes again, a part of him wished she had left the room, because now he faced more decisions to make. She offered him a pitiful excuse for a reassuring smile, and was tuning to go, "Audrey." He didn't reach for her, but the intent was in his voice and she looked back at him reluctantly, for a long moment he didn't say anything and he wondered if he left now if she would hold it against him.

"Yes?" Her voice was so quiet that even he almost missed it, there was fear there which was an entirely new experience being directed at him, and he knew it wasn't for her own safety she was fretting, but for what he was about to say, and still it hit him in the form of a planet crashing down on his chest, and he took a long stride towards her, and his fingers came around her neck.

Her pulse was throbbing erratically against his palm, and the effect on him was dizzying, he was tempted to run his own nails just under her hairline, but he knew it would have greater effect on him and he decided against it, she was looking up at him, the expression poorly and painfully tacked onto her features, he was leaning down but only a fraction. His lips met the center of her forehead for only a moment, and her hands were gripping at the tails of his shirt, her breath was ghosting across his neck and he rested his chin on the top of her head for a moment, breathing in the smell of her.

"I do promise," He pulled back and looked in her eyes, "We will talk, later tonight if you want."

She was nodding again, and this time he looked a little more relieved, there was a sharp rapping, and Edward turned to see Elvis looking at them through the window, rocking back and forth in the old chair that sat out there over looking the yard, and the pool.

"Tonight then." She said and her whisper now sounded like a shout, and he nodded. She was biting her lip again, and staring him in his eyes, he swallowed thickly and turned away from her. Elvis was looking disapprovingly at the two of them, but Edward saw happiness and humor dancing in the older man's eyes.

Tonight then. He opened the screen door, and took a moment to look after her, she was just disappearing around the corner, he smiled to himself, making a promise to himself. He would tell her everything, it would happen tonight, and it would have to be everything.

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_**OOOOOOO! O_o What is he going to tell her? J**__**ust to let you this is what you should all be thinking in this moment, and you know what you should be thinking now? You should be thinking about reviewing, because it truly is the fastest way to get me to update, just think I got a review this morning, and viola! UPDATE! Wo knows who will inspire me next week, review if you want it to be you!**_


	13. Chapter 13

***Peeks head out from behind door* **

**So, hey guys :) How've you been? I know it's been a while and what not. My sincerest apologies that I abandoned you guys in you time of need, but I hope I can make up for by posting this ridiculiously awesome chapter. Please don't hate me, because I love all of you.**

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Edward didn't take a real breath until he closed the door behind him. Elvis was staring out at the landscape surrounding the old house. The shadow cast over the ground beyond it looked menacing; he recalled egging on Frankie's fears when they were kids. He didn't turn as Edward took up the rocking chair to his left, and Edward didn't bother to say anything because he knew Elvis would fill him in when he was good and ready. After another moments silence, Elvis faced him fully.

"The Gemini Project." His voice was low, and Edward couldn't tell if he was simply speculating or if there was a question in there somewhere. He crossed his arms over himself, and listened to the sounds of the outdoors until Elvis decided he would clarify. As it turns it was three hundred and thirty seven cricket chirps, and two minutes later the Elvis felt the need to relieve the weight of their companionable silence, "Do you know what the Gemini is?" He asked, rubbing his clipped fingernails over his freshly shaven jaw. Throwing a glance over his shoulder briefly, as he took up his smokes.

"Like Astrology?" Edward knew very little other than his families signs. He knew he had an aunt and uncle on his father's side who were big into things like of that nature. Remembering very clearly the one, and the only time they ever came to visit, the incense had very nearly choked Frankie, and a death omen was place over Edward, their mother had seen fit to ask them to cut their stay short. His aunt hadn't seemed as into what had happened as his uncle had, and Edward told himself it was his aunt who shared a portion of his blood but he had no proof.

"Yes, Gemini is the story of twins. To keep it short and sweet." Elvis was picking indifferently at his nails, and Edward was listening to Audrey humming from inside the house. He could barely hear plates clinking together and he thought she must have been cleaning up dinner.

"Okay," He said, turning to focus on Elvis again, and trying to turn off his sense of hearing. But either it wasn't working or the sweet sound of her voice was haunting him. Either of these was a possibility, but neither seemed to make much difference, "What does that have to do with anything?"

"There was a project like that; way back when I was one of you, called it _Gemini_. Name came from the idea that twins have a unique connection, you know finishing each others sentences, feeling when the other is in pain and other bullshit like that." Elvis was leaning into Edward and both men had stopped moving, even Elvis didn't stop to flick ash off the end of his cigarette. With the moment so tense, "Only this project meant a link from the brain of one, to the brain of another. With one brain…dominant over the other." He said this slowly, seeming to choose his words then change his mind and choose others as he went.

"Mind control?" Edward said, with inadvertent sarcasm dribbling out unexpectedly.

Elvis leaned away from him and fixed him first with a look of mild disappointment and second with exasperation, "And I suppose you came out of the womb believing everybody would be a vampire before your were forty, did you?" He shook his head, gave a particularly violent shove of his rocking chair, and a deep pull of his cigarette. While Edward moved suddenly uncomfortable that he had challenged Elvis' information. However unintentional it might have been.

"Sorry." He coughed quietly and glanced away from Elvis' face, which was still trained out on the yard. A shadow passed over them, and Edward adjusted in his seat to look at the window. Audrey was watching the backs of their heads carefully. Elvis shot her a look when she sat down to open her book, but she didn't bother to acknowledge it. When he gave a small shake of his head, and turned away. She looked up making certain Edward caught her eye.

"Tonight." She mouthed, and Edward's stomach churned. Looking to Elvis who was eyeing his, before he nodded carefully to her.

"Yes," He barked suddenly at Edward, who risked only one more glance at Audrey, she was smiling to herself like a nervous teenager, and he hoped beyond hope that she would still smile that way when she thought about him tomorrow morning, "Mind control! Or something nears enough to it. It was intended to be made an implant into all new vamps. To try and keep them from going rogue and murdering every human in sight, this was back when the strain was only for the rich. After it was release to the public the government thought it would be a useful tool to help track down humans for capture. Fresh vamps, or vamps deprived of blood can track humans much faster than a well feed vamp who's had time to…adjust."

"Sounds like they thought of everything. Why scrap the project?" Edward was trying to turn it over in his head. But Audrey's foot was bouncing up and down in his peripheral vision, and she was humming again. Everything about her being within a twenty foot radius from him was making it difficult to process anything. That and the smell of Elvis' cigarette was getting into his head, and it dawned on him for the first time, it had been almost two weeks since his pack and run out.

"Well it didn't work. At least it didn't when I left; I was on my way to sign papers to scrap the project myself when I crashed. I had a few human friendlies on the inside and when I got into contact with them a few months later. They said they had found my car, and pronounced me incinerated at the scene. Not even and investigation can you believe that bullshit!" Edward cocked an eyebrow in his direction, and he saw Audrey lean forward to peer out the front window at the sound of raised voices. But he threw on a small smile for her benefit, and she backed away, her foot taking up its previous rhythm.

"Yeah, an outrage." He replied dryly and Elvis shot him a thoroughly withering look.

"I'll have you know, I was a staple in the vampire community, and was well loved by most who knew me personally." Elvis shot tersely, as he started to rock again, digging into his pocket to retrieve his lighter. Staring angrily at the end of his cigarette which had gone out.

"I bet my death would have been investigated of…" Edward stared, smiling as he did.

"Anyway," Elvis cut in harshly, looking out at the yard and pretending he hadn't just interrupted, "My contact told me after that the project was scrapped as planned. As far as I knew it had never been picked back up again, there was no point. The test subject ended up finding and killing more humans than they managed to capture." For a moment Elvis lowered his head, and Edward looked away from him uncomfortably. By the time he looked back, Elvis was staring at him, and had procured a fresh cigarette, his fingers twitched tantalizingly, he knew if he asked Elvis would fork one over to him. "But your man at the winery, Donovan. There is no way he could have walked into that place if he wasn't being controlled somehow. If you hadn't mentioned Gemini I would have never remembered, as far as I knew it had been permanently shut down."

Edward was nodded to him, trying to keep his brain following a straight line. Mind control, it may be something out of his childhood cartoons, but if it had been somehow made into a reality. Then he feared for the small remaining human population. It would be a blood bath, eh glanced at Edward as Audrey's swinging foot caught his attention. For a moment he pictured her covered in blood, bites covering her delicate skin. Her eyes snapped open suddenly and her amber eyes stared at him, his hand came down to help her up, and she smiled at him. Leaning in to kiss his bloody lips. He nearly cried out as he came back to the present, he wouldn't let it happen.

"Why not say all this in front of Audrey?" Edward asked the obvious in hopes he could cover up the lapse and hopefully scrub the image from his mind. Elvis looked sharply back at the window and Audrey looked up in time to see them both watching her, abruptly she stopped humming and turned pink. AS they sat back looking at each other again, Edward heard her start to hum, but much quieter now.

"Because," He said quietly, "The man who first came up with the project was Audrey's father, Graham." The air stiffened around Edward and he gave a small tilt of his head to one side, like he might start to shake his head, but he stilled before it went too far.

"Audrey's father died, just after the outbreak." Edward parroted, Audrey herself had told him so, not but two weeks ago. The day after his last cigarette, he cringed. It couldn't hurt him he knew, but Audrey didn't like the smell he could tell whenever he came into a room she bit back her initial disgust if he smelled like smoke. Also he couldn't be sure what kind of example he was setting for Samuel.

"No, Graham was one of the members of my team who helped develop the virus. He was a geneticist in high standing with most of the medical community; he hadn't been allowed to inform anyone outside of his team what he was working on, only that it was for the government. When it came out, Audrey was horrified; Graham hadn't known what to do, so he lied. Telling her they would meet a rendezvous far outside the city, and he made sure to keep officers clear of her route until she was gone. He could continue her work, and Audrey could remember her father fondly. Everybody wins." Elvis held his hand up, his shoulders scrunched, as if to say '_what can ya do?'_

Edward felt ill, was this what his mother had died for? At the hands of the man who fathered a daughter that Edward himself might…

He shut his thoughts down there, and he berated himself for even trying to take it there. Audrey was nothing like her father, the same way he was nothing like his father. This calmed him a little, and he rocked back in his chair, "I won't lie to her."

"Dammit Edward! It's for her own good, for the sake of her happiness." Elvis whispered harshly, glancing over his shoulder to make sure he hadn't been too loud, and then fixing him with a stern glare of disapproval.

"If it were my mother alive, I would want to know." He told him quietly, he hadn't wanted to play the dead mom card, but he needed Elvis to know how serious he was. There were enough lies in the world, and enough liars to fill the universe, he wouldn't be one of them.

Lionel's brown eyes softened, and he looked sorrowful, "Yes, but you're mother isn't alive, and neither is Audrey's father."

"You don't need a heartbeat to be alive." Edward said exasperatedly, he wouldn't lie to Audrey even on a technicality.

"I know that dammit, I mean Graham killed himself just before my accident. His project was in the shitter, and with each new vamp he sent out, more humans were being slaughtered. Every time it happened he would shut himself up in his room till the scouts got back, convinced it was Audrey he had gotten killed. When the project shut down, he snapped, he had no idea where his daughter was or if she was even still alive, or accepts him as he was. The same daughter he had given up so that he could finish a project that hadn't worked. It was more than he could bear. Walked outside in broad daylight, so he ain't alive now. He ain't even in one piece." Elvis hung his head and Edward reached out a hand to place on his shoulder. He hadn't thought about all the people he knew from the vamp world since he had left with Audrey, except for Frankie. But he hadn't thought about his lab tech, his neighbors, the few friends he had. The young female bartender he had agreed to make a date with. They had all fallen into shadows since he and Audrey had been on the run. He realize now he hadn't missed them at all, and he didn't mind being without them.

But clearly it hadn't been the same for Elvis. He had cared about the vampires he knew, he had cared dearly for them. And in one fowl glance, he had lost them. Edward couldn't help but link the similarities in his mind. He wanted to apologize to Elvis at once, how many times had they sat up at the vineyard those first night, Elvis listening as Edward vented his frustrations over an unhealthy amount of alcohol. Now he saw he had suffered nearly the same separations from everything _he had_ loved dearly.

Elvis pulled out from under Edward's hand, and he let it fall roughly back to his side, "I promised Graham that I would find Audrey. That I would make her see the good in vampires and once she understood that they weren't all mindless bloodthirsty monsters then I would tell her what he was, and arrange for them to meet. But he never gave me the chance to; I still went to find her thought. I thought she deserved to know the truth."

Edward looked over his shoulder and watched her foot bouncing lightly, in tune with her insistent humming, _So much loss._ He thought wearily, it wasn't right.

"I ran into trouble trying to find her, I forgot what it were like to be human, warm breezes, open roads, sunshine. I was wandering in a field when some teenaged vamps snuck up on me. Her and her crew found me just in the nick of time, but I was tore up pretty bad. By the time I was patched back up, and well enough to tell her anything. She had already gone all Audrey on me, I knew she didn't trust vampires still, and if I tried to tell her then. It would have crushed her. Even when I told her my story about turning back into a human, she didn't talk to me for a week. She worked it out eventually but I gave up hope after that. I had just settled for keeping her out of harm's way, and Graham's secret to myself until you showed up."

"Me?" Edward asked quickly, tearing his eyes away from Audrey to look at Elvis, who fixed him with an unyielding expression.

"Yes, you," He said hotly, "I see the way that you two are with one another. Hell she's living with you Edward! That means something, the two of you are the image we want to project to the human community. That humans and vampires can work with one another, live with one another; fall head over heels for one another."

Edward swallowed thickly, Elvis was bringing his mind into dangerous territory, he had made it a point to keep far away from these kinds of thought himself and here Elvis was all but begging him to admit it to himself.

"The other members of the council and I have been talking, we have been thinking about bringing you and Audrey out together," He held up his hands in defense against Edward's imminent protests, "Just to boost morale, most of the people we've got know Audrey they trust her implicitly. They'll let the newbie's know they can trust her too, and if they trust her they trust you, and if they trust you…then who knows what kind of possibilities we could open up to them."

He wanted to shake his head violently against the suggestion. What Elvis was asking would mean a lot of time together, a lot of time alone together, and the last time they had been alone together they had been in his bathroom. About to do something very stupid and he couldn't risk her, anything else, anyone else, just not her. Elvis watched him carefully, twisting another cigarette out of his pack, and lighting it in the silence.

"It would only be for a couple of weeks, you just go around and show people that not all vampires are bad. Nothing too crazy, Sam can even come on the road with you guys. I'm sure he would love to get out of the house." Elvis made the whole thing sound so simple, like all they had to do was spend every waking moment for the next two weeks with each other, and nothing would change. That wouldn't have moments together, just the two of them, which would raise good bumps on her flesh, and turn his judgment to jelly. The way he said it, it sound like Edward was going to enjoy every good damned second of it.

_Sad part is_, Edward thought to himself ruefully, _if she's with me. It will be the frickin time of my life._

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**So lots of information in this one. I kind of wanted to give backstory while still making headway with Edward adn Audrey, plus I love ELvis' character adn delving into the deep underbelly of his brain. What his past experiences might have been, how or why he chose to be a vampire, all that good stuff. So leave me a review if you want, showering me with praise, or dashing my hopes and dreams. Both are accepted and apprechiated.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Hey lovies! How've the months been? Hopefully they didn't feel too long. I want to thank all of you for being so loving with me, and never scolding me for spelling errors or the long and unnecessary vacations I take from this story. I do so hope that this update makes up for my absence and if it doesn't entirely heal the wound, know I'm sorry and forgive me anyway.**

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The chairs scraped roughly against the hardwood floor. They sat for a period of time uncounted by either, but somewhere in the back of his mind, Edward heard Elvis slipping off into sleep. Seemingly in time with his stomach slipping and sliding higher in his body, until it was nestled snugly in his Adam's apple. There was a clammy feeling settled just behind it, and it made it borderline painful to swallow his fear in his suddenly cotton filled mouth.

Audrey was looking at him carefully, her face was passive, yet her heartbeat belied this seeming calm. His eyes closed, he let out the deepest of breaths to calm the waves in his stomach, and do what he had set out to do.

His fingers felt foreign in his pocket, the knuckles of his fingers brushed roughly against the inside fabric of his jeans. The corner was sharp still even though it was nearly a decade old, and had been removed and deposited from every pair of pants he had worn since acquiring it. He thought perhaps this told a different story, a more in depth look to his grief behind it, but it could be that it stayed this way because he had never wanted to ruin the one good thing he had left in his life.

A small white square. He held it with the utmost of care, she glanced at the small piece of paper, but almost immediately shot back up to his face. His expression, she thought, was meant to be blank, but his stiff upper lip and misting eyes told her that she could doubt the legitimacy of the act. He set the paper face down on the table, folding his hands over top of it. Her curiosity was slowly beginning to eat at her, but she felt as though he were building to something. Something that would satisfy the questions that pressed in, threatening to crush her heart. His fingers clicked back and forth quietly, a small half a second stick as he flexed his fingers. A motion of someone who used to crack their knuckles profusely. It was something she hadn't known about him, she of course understood that there had to be things she wouldn't know about him, but the idea still felt so foreign to her. She wanted to know everything there was to know about him, and she had every intention of making sure she learned everything about him. Starting with whatever he was going to reveal to her tonight.

Carefully, he removed his hands from the top of the paper, letting his fingetips rest on the corner of it before sliding it gently over to her. The paper rested there innocent and unassuming, begging her to take the barest of peeks. But there was something more important, she felt, she needed to establish first, "This doesn't change anything," Her voice was quiet and she tried to ensure that he was hearing her properly, "I will always see you the same."

There was a grin on his face, small and sad, and entirely self loathing, "I should hope not." She wanted to shake her head, prove to him through intelligent argument that she was right. That he would always be Edward to her, no matter what he said to her in the next few minutes. But her father had taught her that actions speak louder than words. So she grasped the paper, tucking a nail under the corner as to avoid a fight with the inanimate object, which would no doubt stick with incredible suction to the lacquered surface of the table. She turned it slowly back over, and returned it to its original position face up. A family stared up at her, smiling wide, arms thrown around each other in joyous affection. A father holding an infant close, a mother with a boy and girl sitting on her lap, grasping hands as tightly as their mother held them to her chest. So much love. So much tenderness was captured in the moment, she wanted to cry. Because it was something she had never had, and it was something that was still missing from their world.

Her eyes cut to Edward. This wasn't his family, their skin was too dark, and as far as she knew, he didn't have a sister. But the fact that he carried it with him told her it was as important as a family should be. Though the reason for this, gave way for concern. The pause was unnecessarily long, and for a great moment, she stared at him confused by his stalling, until it hit her. His face was long and he eyed the door, not because he was wanting to bolt, it wasn't in his nature to run from a difficulty. But because he wanted her too. If she left now, he could not tell her. and she would see him as a coward, which he obviously found more desirable than the alternative. She didn't think it would make much difference to him if she tried to tell him she would look at him the same regardless of his past. So instead she pushed to picture back across the table towards him, in a way that bordered on defiance. Clasping her hands around one another and setting them lightly back on the table.

His smile returned, but there was a flash of disappointment, it disappeared as swiftly as as it came and he nodded lastly spinning the family portrait around. Pointing slowly to the youngest of the group, "That's Liam, he was only eight months old when the outbreak started," He was clearing his throat carefully, trying, it seemed, it reach every part of his throat before he spoke again, "Annie and Alex, seven." Now that he had said it she saw a resemblance that went beyond any familial trait, those two had once been only one, "Marissa." His voice was threatening to break and Audrey was beginning to wish more than ever that she had taken the out he had offered. She would take the clawing curiosity as long as she never had to hear such a sound leave him again. His forefinger brushed over the shiny, smiling face, brushing off invisible specks of dust in the most loving of ways, and she felt her heart puncture, "James, he wasn't even forty."

"When the outbreak started?" She asked, seemingly stupidly. But she had been struck with a sudden horrible thought came at her in a violent affront to an otherwise peaceful train of thought. He was shaking his head slowly at her, and the look on his face broke her heart. Before her sat a fractured soul, threatening to swallow a broken heart, he had seen to much hurt for his lifetime, even if he did end up living forever. She hoped that what she saw there was in some way an exaggeration of his true state, but she found it somehow too raw to be a fabrication.

A long pause, as he stared at those frozen faces, before he looked back up at her. His eyes were hard set now, and she realized he wouldn't be breaking, at least not tonight, "When I killed him."

A silence settled around them. The density of it was enough to strangle her, and the fact that he wouldn't stop staring at her was setting her heart on edge. He was listening to her heart, she could tell. Even though it hadn't been too long ago that they had discussed him listening on purpose. They had come to the conclusion that it was a gross invasion of her privacy to be listening to her heart and he would try to keep his ear off the ground, or her chest, so to speak. Now he was listening freely, daring her to say something, he didn't care at this point. He was begging for a reaction.

So, she would give him one, "Why?"

His expression softened, she was given the satisfaction of knowing it had all been a front, and now he had lost all of his gusto, "Because I was foolish. I thought I could wait out the bloodlust. As long as I didn't go near anyone, and I didn't drink, maybe the vampire part of me would simply starve and I could be human. And if it killed me completely, so be it. My life wasn't anything worth living without a beating heart."

Audrey watched him carefully, as he took the picture off the table and slid it back into his front pants pocket, out of sight though not out of mind. He rubbed tiredly at his temples, and fixed her with another look. She met his eyes, and moved to reach across the table for him, but he dropped his hands into his lap, and sat back from her.

"What are you doing?" His eyes were wide suddenly startled, and Audrey realized she had never before seen him surprised at anything, he heard every noise, knew every smell, could predict the weather by shifts in temperature. Nothing caught him off guard, except for her, it would seem.

Her face flushed, and she dropped her hand to the table, flustered at his reaction. He had never seem opposed to her touching him before,"I was just...You looked...I just wanted to comfort you." She finished uneasily, they weren't discussing their feelings, and she couldn't be sure how many, if any lines this crossed.

His hand came up to rub his jaw, and his brow furrowed, "I just told you I killed a man, in cold blood. And you want to comfort me?"

Audrey rubbed the table absently with her pointer finger, she hadn't been thinking in those terms, just that Edward was in pain, and it shouldn't be happening while she did nothing, "That was a long time ago. You're different. Everyone makes mistakes."

Edward nodded, and shrugged his shoulders, and incredulous look on his face. She almost felt bad, it seemed as though he had expected the story to scare her off, and clearly it hadn't. But now she found herself wondering, had he hoped it would work, or hand he simply needed to tell her. Her eyes came back to his face, and fear slid into her belly. She didn't want this to go wrong, she cared about him too much, needed him in her life, in Samuel's life.

"I trust you, Edward." Audrey said quietly. His eyes shot to hers harshly, but they softened when they did round on her face. He watched her fingers playing with his mother's necklace.

"Why?" He asked astonished.

She smiled at him brightly, and stood, crossing to his side of the table, "Because," she started quietly, "you're kind, and you're brave. You look out for Samuel when it would be easier to leave him to me, you're caring. You're intelligent and even though you are the very thing humans are afraid of, you've managed to win over so many already. You're good to me, and to Elvis, and to everyone you come in contact with, even those that mistreat you because of what you are. And you would have every right to tell them you never chose this, that you never wanted it," plucking the courage she reached down and covered his hand with hers, "and you're warm."

At this he cracked a smile, and moved his chair to stand beside her, "Thank you." He said softly, to which she nodded.

They lapsed into silence, and suddenly Audrey took a breath in and her mind registered that they were standing nearer to each other than they had been in sometime, and that her hand was still covering his. For a moment she considered that she was very tired, and that she was to have a long day ahead of her, it would be wise to go to bed. The muscles in her arms had even tightened, preparing to move her hand, and bid him a good night. When his thumb twitched underneath her palm, and suddenly she was rooted to the spot.

Her eyes came to look down at their hands, as his thumb moved again, dragging a slow line across her palm, his nail tugging and catching on the creases of her hand print. Carefully he turned his hand over and their palms met for the first time since he had found her that morning in the vineyard, doing laundry. Her heart was twitching and skipping over crucial beats, and she thought she might pass out, if it hadn't been for her sheer will to be conscious for this moment.

His thumb came back running its way over her wrist and she closed her eyes, feeling his other hand gripping the curve of her hip and turning her body to face him fully. The thumb disappeared from her wrist, but his fingers were dragging a trail of icy heat up her arm, and his hand had moved from her hip to the narrow point of her waist. As his fingers came to a stop holding her neck, Audrey pried her eyes open to look up at him.

Glowing amber eyes were staring down at her, as his forehead dropped a fraction to touch hers. His eyes kept dropping to look at her lips, and she unconsciously licked at them each time, trying to recall if she had brushed recently. His breath was chilly as was rushing across her face, his hand was so cold it burned at the skin of her neck and waist. His fingers were toying with her hair, and she wished her would lean in already and they could get on with it.

"Audrey," His voice snapped her back into their moment, and she looked up at him, he had moved back a fraction, so his forehead was only brushing hers, "Is this okay?" He breathed, and his eyes were panicked, because if she said no he was sure he would walk out into the sun as soon as it rose.

She beamed at him and nodded vehemently, noting for later to add _chilverious_ to her list of reasons for trusting him. His whole body relaxed and he pulled her tighter against him as he did, their foreheads touched once more, and his left hand moved from her waist to mirror its twin on her neck. He tilted her head a fraction upwards and stared down at her. Tonight was the night.

The night for deciding they understood the difference between right and wrong, and safety and danger, intellect and stupidity. It was also the night they decided they didn't care.

Because it was a horrible idea and they knew it, the sheer amount of stupidity being show by the two of them was astounding. It was dangerous and it was going to compromise his ability to reason in the face of other dangers, it shouldn't have gotten this far, he shouldn't even have let himself have feelings for her in the first place and this wouldn't have happened.

This was what ran through Edward's head, or rather it was. Until the pink tip of Audrey's tongue again made an appearance and his mind went blank. Well it would have, it had started too. But then there was the third heartbeat. Edward had been listening to Audrey's slamming so very near him, but he could hear faintly Elvis' beating at a crawl in the other room, and Samuel's down the hall. Only it wasn't down the hall anymore, it was beating just inside the doorway to the kitchen.

Moving back from her face, Audrey opened her eyes with panic and confusion clouding them, he dropped his hands from her face, and looked around her, spying Samuel who stood with his left pajama leg shoved up to his knee and his top on backwards, and large tears rolling silently down his cheeks. Turning to see what had caught his attention, Audrey gasped and came to his side.

"Sammy, honey," She said, opening her arms to him, and cradling the child who had stepped gratefully inside, "Nightmare?" She asked quietly in his ear.

His head moved in a fractional nod, before her arms came around her and his shoulders slumped, Audrey rubbed at his back, and smoothed down her hair. Her eyes flashed towards Edward who was backing quietly down the hall, she opened her mouth to say something to him, anything. But he moved to the staircase and was gone. Sighing, she lifted the child and move back towards his bedroom.

Edward stood just in the shadows of the stairs with his eyes closed so she couldn't see him, now that her heat was away from him, every thought came rushing back. This was a problem, his judgement was slipping, he was becoming too comfortable around her and Sam. They had slept against him a week ago for Christ sake! His head hit the wall with a thud, and he relished as the last spot of heat, chilled. Opening his eyes he listened down the hall to Audrey's heartbeat, and moved a hand to his chest.

He let his fingers rest over where his heart should be beating beneath his skin, and blocked out everything he could, everything except the pounding of her heart. The slow and steady, familiar rhythm. Slowly his fingers began to tap, matching the rhythm of her heartbeat, tapping out a beat over a spot that once held life. He didn't know how long he had stood there for, listening to nothing but her life source Until it came closer, moving back towards the kitchen, before he stole upstairs.

Tonight wasn't the night.

* * *

**Are we sad? Because I'm sad, I thought tonight was the night dammit! What happened? We were doing so good, and then it all went kaput. I bet you're asking yourself right now, **Ah, well. What can ya do? **Well ****I am so very glad you asked. Review**. **That's what you can do, review no and then PM me at random intervals after several weeks, because I'm very forgetful.**

**In fact this particular chapter in dedicated to **lolcentral101 **who just recently review my story and I don't know whether it was the reminder I had left it, or actually looking at the words **6 months **which pulled me out of my funk. But there you go, so now that you know you all have the power within you. Please use it wisely and review!**


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